Clients often want to withhold some financial information from a divorce financial statement. Often, clients don’t want to list inherited property or accounts they have with other people, such as a joint account with their mother, “because the money is really Mother’s.”
Such actions jeopardize the entire proceedings, can be redressed at any time in the future and can lead to retroactive penalties. Such actions are regarded as a “fraud upon the court” and can be raised even years after a matter is final. See Finch v. Finch, No. 2011-CT-00306-SCT (1/16/14).