Protection of Federal Targets
I had a call from a prospective client who says his company is under investigation by the Security and Exchange Commission, and he wants to move money to an offshore trust. He asked whether this would protect his money from the SEC investigation.
There's no way I'm getting involved in this case. Its one thing in Florida to protect money from civil lawsuits; but trying to hide money from federal agencies is something else. For all I know the SEC investigation involves criminal allegations in which case I could be dragged into the client's criminal scheme. My advice to aspiring asset protection attorneys is to draw the line on prospective clients whenever a government agency is involved. First, most common asset protection plans are not effective against federal collection efforts to retrieve ill-gotten financial gain. For example, even Florida's homestead protections cannot avoid a lien placed on the house related to criminal or egregious activity. Secondly, federal agencies have unlimited resources to attack lawyers who attempt to deceive the agency or collaborate with targets of their investigations. Targets of federal civil or regulatory agencies are "toxic clients". Its not worth it.
Posted by bankruptcy and asset protection attorney Jonathan Alper of Orlando, Florida
