What is bankruptcy fraud?

[anabanana]

What is the name of your state? FL


What constitutes fraud in bankruptcy? Those forms are pretty easy to make mistakes on, but by virtue of that, it seems like it would also be pretty easy to try to get away with lots of omissions and lies and then claim to have misunderstood. How much of this is tolerated by the trustees? They are mainly trying to process a case load, and probably don't want to become investigators, right?

And if being bankrupt, by definition, is having more liabilities than assets with which to address them, what happens if it turns out that the assets exceed the liabilities after all?

For instance, if a house is actually worth double what the debtor claimed (such that the debtor could borrow against it to get cash to pay off other debts) would the debtor be expected to exhaust that resource before turning to the court for relief, even if they didn't want to?

Thanks for any clarity anyone can render.

[JETX]

With all due respect, why do you keep starting new threads for all your issues?? You have about 10 of them open at this time.... some of them similar in nature, some completely separate (but all related to bankruptcy). It is VERY confusing trying to figure out what you are doing and/or trying to respond to them.

Please get your 'act' together and start consolidating them.

[anabanana]

Oh. I have not intended to open any similar threads. If I've done that, I apologize. I open a new one when a question seems to me to be a new topic so as to make a scan of the titles more productive for someone looking for information. That seemed like the considerate thing to do to make them more useful to others who may have similar questions. I find that a subject line of "Please help" doesn't tell me much, and word searches of the boards often pull in lots of stuff that isn't relevant to the specific question at hand because there is so much terminology that would be common in any given subject area. Anyway, that was my thinking behind doing it that way. If that's poor form, I suppose I can just stick to one thread. Please advise. I do wish to be a good cyber citizen.

tnx
ana

[JETX]

Okay, lets look at the subject lines of your last several posts:
1) "What is bankruptcy fraud?"
2) "Keeping the money secrets "
3) "Can a filed bankruptcy be withdrawn?"
4) "DISHCARGEABLE: 7 vs. 13 Enquiring minds want to know...? "
5) "Questioning the Debtor at a 341 Creditors Meeting "
6) "And about defaulting on attorneys..."
7) "Property: assessed or real market value?"
8) "Do debtors show up for 341s, or just their lawyers?"
9) "I need guidance as a creditor. Anyone?"

Do see the pattern to each of these.... why not just ask them in ONE thread??

In any case, lets answer them all for you here at one time....
1) Bankruptcy fraud can be any of several things, including lying on the peitition and filings to attempting to hide assets.
2) Secrets: No, a debtor is supposed to be accurate, honest and complete in his filing.
3) Yes, a bankruptcy petition can be withdrawn at any time up to a ruling by the court.
4) Chapter 7 is a liquidation, chapter 13 is a reorganization where the creditors (theoreticaly) get SOMETHING in payment.
5) Yes, any creditor attending a 341 meeting can question the petitioner on virtually any financial issues.
6) An attorney can request the court to dismiss him from representation.
7) Use fair market value.
8) The debtor MUST show up.
9) Since this was your first one (I believe), you got lots of answers to it already.

Okay, now you can go back and delete all of the other threads that don't have specific answers.

[anabanana]

JETX, my dear fellow--

I can see how that would all seem to be part and parcel of the same bucket of stew to someone well-versed in the subject matter. But to my greenhorn eyes, that looks like a list of quite distinct topics. Nevertheless, you may consider me properly chastened. It's been a mighty anxious weekend, but I got great value out of all the input and I am going to have a proper tete-a-tete with a real flesh-and-blood attorney at law, tomorrow, so I should be less of a mook perhaps, from now on.

Thank you for your good-humored indulgence. You are a scholar and a gentleman. And a wit and a bit of a curmudgeon, too, perhaps.

Of course, that's my favorite part.

ana

[minkyboodle]

"Bankruptcy fraud can be any of several things, including lying on the peitition and filings to attempting to hide assets."


Well, does anyone actually care? I mean, for normal personl bankrupcys when theres not a lot of money to recover anything from anyway, does the judge or the trustee really care? Because there could be things that wouldnt' affect tje bankrupcy one way or the other but you don't want them on there because their just personal or something, but my lawyer told that for "little guys" like me the judge or, the trustee or whatever just wants to know if you have anything liquidadable or not, and if you don't, all the rest of it doesn't make a difference anyway. Right? Even if someone wants to pick it apart, it doesn't get anything done anyway, right?

[Ladynred]

Yes, it matters and your lawyer's cavalier attitude is appalling !

Its true, if you've nothing they can liquidate the court gains NOTHING. HOWEVER if the Trustee finds anything that is fraudulent on your papers, you CAN be prosecuted - the FBI comes knocking on your door and hauls your butt off to federal prison !! You can also be subject to some whopping fines and you can be barred from ever filing BK again. Its NOT a 'so what' deal.

For the 'little guy' it may not happen often, but it CAN and it DOES, all it takes is one Trustee out to teach someone a lesson .. and your family can visit you behind bars.

Its the BIG fish that you always hear about, but when you get enough little fish all committing fraud, it turns into a BIG issue. Its ONE of the reasons that the bankruptcy reform bill even came up !!