Anecdote of the Week

SILENCE IS GOLDEN

We were involved as the neutral expert in a business run by the husband where we believed there was cash/unreported income, and had a preliminary conclusion along those lines. During a settlement conference, with both clients and counsel involved, the husband protested mightily that our preliminary conclusions were incorrect, and that his business had no unreported income. While we had our doubts, he made a fairly convincing argument – and we agreed to put that issue aside and revisit it later. We then proceeded in another direction in attempting to settle the case, addressing a loan from the bank that the husband had to take out to cover expenses. He complained about carrying the debt load, and how he found it a burden to keep on making payments against that liability – showing us a couple of statements from the bank, indicating the balance, and payments against same. The only problem was that, despite our intimate involvement and familiarity with their personal and business checking accounts, we had seen no evidence of the paydown of any such debt. So, we raised the question as to where the money came from to pay down the debt. As they say, the look on the husband’s face was priceless