{"id":384,"date":"2011-03-08T12:19:41","date_gmt":"2011-03-08T18:19:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kevinkgipson.com\/?p=384"},"modified":"2013-09-28T14:36:00","modified_gmt":"2013-09-28T19:36:00","slug":"failure-to-report-assets-in-bankruptcy-can-result-in-jail-time-and-fines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kevinkgipson.com\/?p=384","title":{"rendered":"Failure To Report Assets In Bankruptcy Can Result In Jail Time And Fines!"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you file a bankruptcy<\/a> you must tell your attorney about all of your assets and debts.\u00a0 In fact, several of the documents that you sign when filing a bankruptcy advise that your bankruptcy can be dismissed without a discharge, you can be fined up to $500,000.00 or imprisoned for up to 5 years for intentionally making false statements or concealing property from the bankruptcy court.<\/p>\n

The Monroe, Louisiana newspaper, The\u00a0News\u00a0Star <\/a>\u00a0recently reported on the conviction of a Monroe woman, Harriett King, for multiple counts of bankruptcy fraud, including\u00a0misrepresenting herself to individuals as a bankruptcy lawyer,\u00a0and also for failing to disclose assets in her personal bankruptcy filing.<\/p>\n

King owned a business known as HL King and Associates Inc. and\u00a0claimed to provide legal services.<\/p>\n

Testimony in Ms.\u00a0King’s trial\u00a0established that Ms. King,\u00a0a bankruptcy petition preparer, receive legal fees and court costs on at least three occasions\u00a0from debtors by representing\u00a0to the debtors that she was an\u00a0attorney.<\/p>\n

The bankruptcy code does permit a debtor to use the services of a bankruptcy preparer, but a bankruptcy preparer cannot give legal advice.\u00a0 In other words, a bankruptcy preparer must take the information provided by the debtor and prepare the bankruptcy documents, not advise the debtor on what to put in the documents.<\/p>\n

Further,\u00a0when Ms.\u00a0King \u00a0filed her own personal bankruptcy petition, it was found that she fraudulently claimed to own property she did not own and omitted debts she was required to disclose.<\/p>\n

Besides the obvious risk of fines and jail time, there are various exemptions<\/a> available that allow debtors in both Chapter 7<\/a> and Chapter 13 <\/a>bankruptcy to keep most or all of their\u00a0assets when they file for bankruptcy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Additionally, even if the property is not exempt, it might not have actual value to the court and you can keep it anyway.<\/p>\n

Finally, if a debtor wants to keep a non-exempt asset, a trustee in bankruptcy will frequently agree to accept cash payments for the asset, or a\u00a0debtor may be able to keep the non-exempt property by filing a Chapter 13 bankruptcy.<\/p>\n

\nby Kevin Gipson<\/a>, New Orleans, Louisiana bankruptcy lawyer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When you file a bankruptcy you must tell your attorney about all of your assets and debts.\u00a0 In fact, several of the documents that you sign when filing a bankruptcy advise that your bankruptcy can be dismissed without a discharge, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[125,181,17,46,110,126,127,67,64,65,128,99],"class_list":["post-384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bankrputcy","tag-assets","tag-bankrputcy","tag-chapter-13","tag-chapter-7","tag-exemption","tag-fines","tag-jail","tag-kevin-gipson","tag-new-orleans-bankruptcy-attorney","tag-new-orleans-bankruptcy-lawyer","tag-prison","tag-trustee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinkgipson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinkgipson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinkgipson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinkgipson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinkgipson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=384"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/kevinkgipson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":471,"href":"https:\/\/kevinkgipson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384\/revisions\/471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinkgipson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinkgipson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinkgipson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}