Discovering Digital “Dollars” in Divorce, Part 1
For as long as there has been money, people have come up with creative ways of hiding it from others. As one could imagine, there have been more than a few instances of a divorcing spouse concocting an imaginative scheme to hide or disguise assets that are subject to division in a divorce proceeding. Historically, these scheming spouses resorted to hiding assets in offshore accounts in Switzerland and the Grand Cayman Islands or literally stuffing cash under a mattress.
These days, elevating one’s mattress with cash or taking a “ski trip” to the Alps are not the only ways spouses seek to hide assets in divorces; the age of “virtual currency” is upon us, and opportunistic spouses may think these new currencies will be the best way to maintain their hidden assets since the Swiss Banking Law of 1934.
By now, many of you have heard of Bitcoin, the first and most famous of the virtual or “crypto” currencies, which has experienced meteoric rises and precipitous drops in market value even within the past year. Here is a basic overview of this complex and relatively new form of currency:
- Bitcoin, first introduced in 2009, is just one example of
“We have been together for so long, it is as if we are married.” In a small number of jurisdictions, including nearby Rhode Island, a couple can be legally recognized as being married, without any formal registration of a civil or religious marriage. This legal concept is often referred to as a common law marriage. Massachusetts is one of a majority of states in which common law marriage is not available. Nevertheless, some of the principles of common law marriage can be applied in Massachusetts divorce cases, particularly those in which alimony is at issue. For example, when considering the length of the marriage in a divorce case, Massachusetts courts have the authority, under limited circumstances, to include months or even years prior to a legal marriage as part of the overall length of the marriage. The effect of this artificial extension to the marriage length can be significant: the longer the marriage, the longer the potential duration of alimony.