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Category: FFS Blog

Financial Forensic Report 3.16.2021

TAKING THE MISSED

POT OF GOLD

Can even the worst case judgment be collected? Maybe.  We’ve  all seen judgments that at first glance appear to be uncollectable. We had  a judgment that involved three debtors, but our research found that two had filed bankruptcy and our debt had been discharged from both of them, leaving only one debtor to look for recovery. Further research showed that the remaining debtor had over $2,000,000 in Federal and state tax liens, numerous civil judgments, he had lost all his real estate holdings, and had a credit report filled with debt, charge-offs and collections. A search of the DMV found that his car was over ten years old and had little or no equity. We even found that the debtor had recently been garnished at his part- time job at an office supply store by the IRS, but he quit before his next paycheck could be garnished. Bottom line: we were at the end of a long line of creditors that were after a hardened debtor that had no known assets, making this kind of case the very definition of uncollectable.

However we checked further and performed an online search of the state’s Unclaimed Funds Division (Colorado) where we found funds listed in the debtor’s name. The problem we had was our debtor had a very common name (think ‘John Smith’ type of name) so it was difficult to discern which of the funds, if any, belonged to our specific party. The state’s free search results only gave us the claimant’s name and the town where their address was located. Not even the amount of the unclaimed funds was shown. Based on what we saw, we felt we had lots of possibilities and nothing to lose, so we had our legal counsel send off a Writ of Garnishment with Notice of Exemption and Pending Levy to the Office of the State Treasurer and crossed our fingers.

Shortly thereafter we received a return of the writ stating that the debtor had only $3.20 being held by the state. Obviously this experiment appeared to be a bust, but upon further review of the situation we realized we had made the mistake of providing the state with just the debtor’s name, personal identifiers, and his most recent address. We discovered that the funds are actually organized in Colorado by the claimant’s NAME and ADDRESS, and they are not generally associated with any dates of birth or other identifiers. The state can only research and find funds with what you provide, so we sent back the writ to the Treasurer with a detailed list of sixteen known addresses where the debtor/claimant had lived. This time we received back a list of several thousand dollars in unclaimed funds which we recovered toward the satisfaction of the judgment. Persistence pays off!

The takeaway here is that we were able to recover funds from the debtor when there was more than $2,000,000 in liens from creditors that where recorded ahead of us. Obviously you’ll have to keep in mind that each state is going to have their own way of organizing claims for searching, but with a little digging, you may just find your own pot of gold.

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REAL COURT CASE NAMES

Schmuck  v.  United States

United States  v. 
Ninety-five Barrels (More or Less) Alleged Apple Cider Vinegar

South Dakota  v.  Fifteen Impounded Cats

United States  v. 
11 1/4 Dozen Packages of Articles Labeled in Part
Mrs. Moffat’s Shoo-Fly Powders for Drunkenness

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Diagnostic & Prescriptive Judgment Enforcement
By: Joe H. Dickerson, CFE

$24.95 + FREE S&H

Please place your book orders by calling
303.974.5610
during normal business hours Mon-Fri 9am-5pm MT.
or email joe@financialforensicservices.comand make an appointment
for a FREE initial review of your judgment. Thank you!

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Testimonial

“As an environmental law firm, we use Joe Dickerson to locate prior business owners and do corporate genealogies. He is persistent, that’s the key to a good investigator, and he has a knack for understanding how people move money and do business. That tells him what rocks to look under. Joe is vastly superior to other investigators in two ways: he lets you know what’s going on and he’s honest with you, because he tells you if there’s really anything there worth pursuing. He is unusually thorough and creative finding people. Joe has earned his fee every time.” “If the information is to be found, then I believe that they will find it. Their service enabled me to do a much better job for my client.”

Tim Gabelhouse
, Attorney at Law

2014-11-11T18:20:41+00:00

Tim Gabelhouse
, Attorney at Law

“As an environmental law firm, we use Joe Dickerson to locate prior business owners and do corporate genealogies. He is persistent, that’s the key to a good investigator, and he has a knack for understanding how people move money and do business. That tells him what rocks to look under. Joe is vastly superior to other investigators in two ways: he lets you know what’s going on and he’s honest with you, because he tells you if there’s really anything there worth pursuing. He is unusually thorough and creative finding people. Joe has earned his fee every time.” “If the information is to be found, then I believe that they will find it. Their service enabled me to do a much better job for my client.”

“Joe is the most competent investigator I’ve ever found. He has rare ability to find hidden assets. Others claim it, Joe has it. He understands the Rules of Evidence, he knows how to talk to people to develop a fact pattern, and he has a sixth sense for fraud. Joe has unquestioned integrity and delivers value for his services.”

Andrew Quiat
, Attorney

2014-11-11T18:12:51+00:00

Andrew Quiat
, Attorney

“Joe is the most competent investigator I’ve ever found. He has rare ability to find hidden assets. Others claim it, Joe has it. He understands the Rules of Evidence, he knows how to talk to people to develop a fact pattern, and he has a sixth sense for fraud. Joe has unquestioned integrity and delivers value for his services.”

“Financial Forensic Services did an excellent job in the way they executed my case. They were very straightforward. They stated what they could do for us and they did it. And, from a personal standpoint, they are excellent. Both my wife and I felt very comfortable working with them.”

Michael Whalen, 
Businessman

2014-11-11T18:21:13+00:00

Michael Whalen, 
Businessman

“Financial Forensic Services did an excellent job in the way they executed my case. They were very straightforward. They stated what they could do for us and they did it. And, from a personal standpoint, they are excellent. Both my wife and I felt very comfortable working with them.”

“Joe Dickerson is the industry standard. You can measure the rest by what he does, and I say that without equivocation. Joe has incredible insight into the dark world of fraud. He understands the devious ways in which people perpetrate white-collar crime.”

Jan Schlichtman
, Attorney at Law

2014-11-11T18:20:55+00:00

Jan Schlichtman
, Attorney at Law

“Joe Dickerson is the industry standard. You can measure the rest by what he does, and I say that without equivocation. Joe has incredible insight into the dark world of fraud. He understands the devious ways in which people perpetrate white-collar crime.”

“Joe spends the time to understand the problem from the client’s perspective and from the legal perspective. He is intelligent, tenacious, willing to work as hard as it takes, thorough, well-informed, and just awfully good at what he does.”

Thomas E. Root, 
Attorney

2014-11-11T18:20:05+00:00

Thomas E. Root, 
Attorney

“Joe spends the time to understand the problem from the client’s perspective and from the legal perspective. He is intelligent, tenacious, willing to work as hard as it takes, thorough, well-informed, and just awfully good at what he does.”

“When I was general counsel for First Interstate Bank, I used Joe Dickerson for locating assets, investigating behavior and asset discovery. He did excellent work and always got the information I needed without compromising the bank in any way. He’s more thorough and kept in better touch with me than other investigators. I’d give him a grade of 96 or 97 out of 100.”

Frank Brainerd, Retired
Banker/Attorney

2014-11-11T18:20:20+00:00

Frank Brainerd, Retired
Banker/Attorney

“When I was general counsel for First Interstate Bank, I used Joe Dickerson for locating assets, investigating behavior and asset discovery. He did excellent work and always got the information I needed without compromising the bank in any way. He’s more thorough and kept in better touch with me than other investigators. I’d give him a grade of 96 or 97 out of 100.”

“They went overboard in providing excellent service. I was very pleased with what they provided for me as their end product. Financial Forensic Services really understands how a case needs to be put together in order to be presented to a jury. Their PowerPoint presentation tied everything together. It was thorough, it was concise, and it got the job done.”

Jim Thomas
, Prosecuting Attorney

2014-11-11T18:21:32+00:00

Jim Thomas
, Prosecuting Attorney

“They went overboard in providing excellent service. I was very pleased with what they provided for me as their end product. Financial Forensic Services really understands how a case needs to be put together in order to be presented to a jury. Their PowerPoint presentation tied everything together. It was thorough, it was concise, and it got the job done.”

” I was prepared to dismiss a federal case involving millions of dollars against a local individual who claimed to have no substantial assets. After your staff hit the records and delved into the transactions behind the transactions, you discovered the individual to actually be worth a few million dollars. We continued the case to conclusion. We were also very happy with the financial background examinations you conducted of the former directors of two failed national banks. The heart of any civil case is whether there is a pot at the end of the lawsuit. You were our lucky leprechaun in finding such pots.”

R. Michael Sentel
, Former Section Chief Legal Division, FDIC

2014-11-11T18:13:08+00:00

R. Michael Sentel
, Former Section Chief Legal Division, FDIC

” I was prepared to dismiss a federal case involving millions of dollars against a local individual who claimed to have no substantial assets. After your staff hit the records and delved into the transactions behind the transactions, you discovered the individual to actually be worth a few million dollars. We continued the case to conclusion. We were also very happy with the financial background examinations you conducted of the former directors of two failed national banks. The heart of any civil case is whether there is a pot at the end of the lawsuit. You were our lucky leprechaun in finding such pots.”