Divorce interrogatories & deposition

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NEW YORK

A friend is in the middle of a divorce. His wife of five years worked as office manager of his business during the marriage. She embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from the business. The company is now being audited by both federal & state agencies as she didn't submit payroll taxes or sales taxes and she made hundreds of checks out to "cash" that have no receipts. Her lawyer just sent over 30 pages of questions for him to answer! It seems to me that most of this is designed to make him crazy - they want copies of every piece of paper for the past five years! Trouble is even the books that she kept aren't accurate as she made false entries to hide her theft. Isn't there some way to make her have to do the work on this? He's trying to save the business and she's just racking up more legal fees that she's going to try to force him to pay. He had to refinance everything he owned and is now living in the office!!

ESCIV said:

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NEW YORK

A friend is in the middle of a divorce. His wife of five years worked as office manager of his business during the marriage. She embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from the business. The company is now being audited by both federal & state agencies as she didn't submit payroll taxes or sales taxes and she made hundreds of checks out to "cash" that have no receipts. Her lawyer just sent over 30 pages of questions for him to answer! It seems to me that most of this is designed to make him crazy - they want copies of every piece of paper for the past five years! Trouble is even the books that she kept aren't accurate as she made false entries to hide her theft. Isn't there some way to make her have to do the work on this? He's trying to save the business and she's just racking up more legal fees that she's going to try to force him to pay. He had to refinance everything he owned and is now living in the office!!

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That's the way interrogatories work - they ask for everything that has any relevance.

Frankly, I think it would be a HUGE mistake to have her do it. She has shown that she can't be trusted, so why in the world would he expect her to do it properly now?

About the only thing he can do to reduce his workload is that if something is truly irrelevant, he can enter 'question not likely to yield discoverable information' or something to that effect (his attorney can give him the correct wording). He really needs to talk it over with his own attorney, in any event.

But it's likely that the majority of questions ARE relevant, so he's just got a pile of work to do.

ESCIV said:

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NEW YORK

A friend is in the middle of a divorce. His wife of five years worked as office manager of his business during the marriage. She embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from the business. The company is now being audited by both federal & state agencies as she didn't submit payroll taxes or sales taxes and she made hundreds of checks out to "cash" that have no receipts. Her lawyer just sent over 30 pages of questions for him to answer! It seems to me that most of this is designed to make him crazy - they want copies of every piece of paper for the past five years! Trouble is even the books that she kept aren't accurate as she made false entries to hide her theft. Isn't there some way to make her have to do the work on this? He's trying to save the business and she's just racking up more legal fees that she's going to try to force him to pay. He had to refinance everything he owned and is now living in the office!!

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How is the business organized? S-corp?, C-corp? LLC?

How could he not know that she didn't submit payroll taxes and sales taxes for so long?

Ignorance is bliss? Or painful?!

It's an S-Corp.

He was in the field every day so never got the mail - she had a P.O. Box set up that he didn't know about and for some reason the accountants only contacted her with their "Must Submit Nows" highlighted in red and yellow. I think they ought to be sued for negligence, but one thing at a time! She opened her own business and he started getting the mail - that is when the shock started. Months after I went through files and found all of the bogus checks he got a call from two credit card companies that she'd opened cards in his name and the bills were sent to her shop - by the time he found out they were both over her credit amount of $20k each - they could get her on the phone so they found his phone number from her on-line application! The state and federal government said they would drop penalty charges if he brought her up on criminal charges but his lawyer said not to do it - would cost him a ton of money and he'd get nothing out of it other than some satisfaction.

ESCIV said:

It's an S-Corp.

He was in the field every day so never got the mail - she had a P.O. Box set up that he didn't know about and for some reason the accountants only contacted her with their "Must Submit Nows" highlighted in red and yellow. I think they ought to be sued for negligence, but one thing at a time! She opened her own business and he started getting the mail - that is when the shock started. Months after I went through files and found all of the bogus checks he got a call from two credit card companies that she'd opened cards in his name and the bills were sent to her shop - by the time he found out they were both over her credit amount of $20k each - they could get her on the phone so they found his phone number from her on-line application! The state and federal government said they would drop penalty charges if he brought her up on criminal charges but his lawyer said not to do it - would cost him a ton of money and he'd get nothing out of it other than some satisfaction.

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I think he should definitely get another legal opinion.

First, I don't think it would cost that much to bring her up on criminal charges. For example, she must have forged his name in getting the credit cards, so it should be an open and shut case. She could try to sue him for defamation, but if he words his complaint carefully, that shouldn't be a problem.

The savings could be HUGE. Just a couple of examples:
- the state and federal penalties could be massive. Just getting those dropped would be significant
- He MAY be able to deduct some or all of the losses on his taxes - but probably not unless he has filed criminal charges
- Depending on his insurance coverage, there may be some coverage - but, again, it's not likely to pay unless he has filed charges
- If he has a good credit history, creditors may be more flexible if he has filed criminal charges
- He could be liable for criminal prosecution himself and will have to spend a lot of money to defend himself. By filing a complaint, he may find that his defense is easier.

Bottom line is that by NOT filing charges, he makes it look like he approved of things and is complicit in the theft.

PLEASE have him get a second opinion.

How many individual questions is he being asked? How many requests for documents are being requested?

Did he read the RULES OF CIVIL PROCEDURE?