At Work by Lindsey Novak

Q: I am going through the biggest fight in my life right now. My husband moved our personal and business money into offshore accounts in his own name before I realized he was having an affair and I filed for divorce. He is colluding with a banker who owns the mortgages on our commercial and personal properties. We were both financially successful, and the commercial property is making money, so his plan is to deprive me of all assets we built together. My husband now controls all of our money, so I hired both a divorce and a real estate lawyer to help. The divorce lawyer is doing very little other than watching the money walk away as my husband spends it on himself and his girlfriend. His plan is to allow the bank to foreclose on the properties, so I will have nothing. Then he can buy them back in his name only at low prices.

I am fighting the foreclosures but I will have to report the fraud, which means reporting my husband and the banker. Until I can successfully stop this, my young children are seeing right now that greed and dishonesty win.

A: Gary A. Zwick, tax lawyer and partner of Walter & Haverfield, a full-service law firm in Cleveland, Ohio, recommends finding a good divorce lawyer — one who will go to court to get either an injunction or protective order preventing your husband from further squandering your assets and to make sure the current bills are paid.

Your husband and the banker are involved in fraud, and you should not feel guilty reporting them to the governing agencies. Though it is too late for you to take these safeguards, those going into business partnerships should take heed.

Zwick has seen too many people allowing spouses/partners to handle everything. While trust is important in a relationship, trust alone is a bad way to operate when people share businesses and assets. Each partner should always have some liquid assets in a safe place where only that person can access them. Also, stay involved in shared financial affairs. Require both partners' signatures on checks for amounts over a certain figure of your choosing. Since counter-signing checks cannot apply to online banking, each person should be aware of the finances, both business and personal.

If one person regularly pays the bills, the other should still be involved and be aware of the bills and their due dates. Zwick says to go online at least weekly to see what bills have been paid. Checking once a month is not enough. If a partner is planning on stealing funds, the sooner it's discovered, the better the chance of stopping it. Also, set limits on credit cards and check the accounts regularly for unusual activity.

A contract is useful for setting terms and conditions for a relationship. It will not stop one partner stealing from the other, but it enables a person to go to court to enforce it. People may feel they don't want to start a partnership by mistrusting the other, but situations change, as do people, and protecting one's self is a smart thing to do.

It is also wise to hire a lawyer with experience in whatever area needed, rather than using a family friend who does the work as a favor. A person who objects to all partners being protected equally may have control issues or a private agenda. In either case, one might do well to rethink that partnership.

Email Lindsey Novak at LindseyNovak@yahoo.com with all your workplace questions. She answers all emails. To find out more about Lindsey Novak and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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