My buddy is getting a divorce. Can the court seize half of his bitcoins?

[gabriella]

my college roommate is now a successful executive. 3 months ago he found out his wife was fxxking a black guy behind his back and his 5-year-old daughter.

since then he has kept quiet and converted as much asset as possible to about 850 bitcoins.

he just sprung the divorce on his ex-wife and now her lawyer is arguing he must have much more money than he claims to be.

the judge ordered he must turn over all his assets to give one half to his ex-wife.

does the court have right of access to his bitcoin wallet?

[Shermo]

Not if he claimed he gambled it all away on satoshi dice?

[MA5H3D]

Nobody can seize bitcoins!
If the wife knows his bitcoin address or somehow knows how many he has, just send them to another address and say they were stolen.

[justusranvier]

If the judge finds out he's got a bitcoin wallet and he refuses to turn over the bitcoins, he can go to jail for contempt of court (and probably other things).

If he doesn't want to do that there are probably ways he could establish plausible deniability with regards to holding those Bitcoins, but having a friend post the details of his situation on a public forum wouldn't be a good way to start.

[rat]

3 months ago he found out his wife was fxxking a black guy behind his back and his 5-year-old daughter.

I enjoyed this part.

[cr1776]

Yes, in the US.  Particularly if there is a paper trail. 

It is complete BS of course, but yes.  No man should get married without a prenup.

my college roommate is now a successful executive. 3 months ago he found out his wife was fxxking a black guy behind his back and his 5-year-old daughter.

since then he has kept quiet and converted as much asset as possible to about 850 bitcoins.

he just sprung the divorce on his ex-wife and now her lawyer is arguing he must have much more money than he claims to be.

the judge ordered he must turn over all his assets to give one half to his ex-wife.

does the court have right of access to his bitcoin wallet?

[rat]

in all seriousness -

how could they?

i like his plan.

[maurya78]

This looks like an interesting test case for the courts to figure out where they stand on this

Pre-nup definitely the way to go

[msc]

If he's in the US in a community property state, the court could order him to pay, and hold him in contempt if he doesn't.  They may be able to track down his BTC purchases, but would have a hard time verifying his current balance.

If it's not a community property state, then wife is out of luck.  It's negotiation time until the divorce is settled.

Just my opinion; I'm not a lawyer.

[justusranvier]

Actually, depending on what state he's in plausible deniability is not enough,.

Some states will throw men in jail indefinitely on the mere suspicion they are hiding assets, with no particular burden of proof required.

[cr1776]

They follow the money and see what he did with it.  If he'd mixed it at SR for example, that would be good because it could've been lost. They say he dissipated the assets.  They say, you are in contempt until you come up with $X.

In short: She whores around.  She gets to get f&$@ed by some other guy,, he gets to get f$&@ed all over again by her in court.

in all seriousness -

how could they?

i like his plan.

[laowai80]

Married guys should jump all over to the idea of bitcoins, it's another great use for cryptos. Wives these days aren't easy to control, not like the good old times, 19th century, oh well, technology comes to rescue. You guys should use 1) DNA analysis to find out who the real father is and now 2) use bitcoins to give a middle finger to an unfaithful wife in case of divorce. Attack and defense mechanisms parallel development, so to say. What other technological achievements progress can bring us? We can only dream and embrace them as they come. Stay tuned.

In western societies there are less and less incentives for men to get married these days. But if you do, at least do it right, with the technology on your side.

[bryant.coleman]

in all seriousness -

how could they?

i like his plan.

Me too. Already I have close to 25% of all my assets in BTCs. And no one knows about it, except for two of my close friends. And about 65% of the net worth is in the form of real estate, which I had inherited. (In my country, in case of a divorce, property passed through inheritance is not affected).

However, in this case he should have waited for a few more months (or 1-2 years). Unless he received the BTCs through peer-to-peer transaction involving hard cash, the prosecution can track the movement of money from his bank account to the account held by the BTC exchange.

All of a sudden, in a relatively short duration (3 months), he has converted all his money to BTC... that will provoke some questions.

[Abdussamad]

First I think it is crazy that a court can make you share your assets with your ex-wife. You guys have some crazy laws in your part of the planet. I hear Berlusconni has to pay millions of Euros every month to his ex-wife as "alimony". I just don't see what the justification is for something like that.

But yeah your courts are strong and they will make your friend pay up. Bitcoins are considered money now and hiding assets there is no excuse. We learned that when the SEC charged pirate.

[justusranvier]

You guys have some crazy laws in your part of the planet.

The United States is a bad country to be married in.

[bryant.coleman]

First I think it is crazy that a court can make you share your assets with your ex-wife. You guys have some crazy laws in your part of the planet. I hear Berlusconni has to pay millions of Euros every month to his ex-wife as "alimony". I just don't see what the justification is for something like that.

The laws are the same in almost all the countries... I am talking about US, Canada, EU nations, Russia & CIS, Australia & NZL, India and even China.

[BldSwtTrs]

So his wife cheat and now he has to give her half of his net worth. And if he don't he can go to jail, and the court can have scrutiny on all of his fucking like.

That's FUCKING SCARRY. America, what have you become?

[cr1776]

You guys have some crazy laws in your part of the planet.

The United States is a bad country to be married in.

Very bad. Always use a prenup - if her motives are pure, she won't object. If they are impure, it tells you something important before marriage.

It isn't only the US either

[laowai80]

if her motives are pure, she won't object. If they are impure, it tells you something important before marriage.

True. If a woman is in love, the pre-nup won't be a slightest problem. If she's not, run, Forrest, run

[btbrae]

Very bad. Always use a prenup - if her motives are pure, she won't object. If they are impure, it tells you something important before marriage.

It isn't only the US either

In the UK prenuptial agreements guarantee nothing when it comes to divorce court, so it's even worse than the US.