In December 2013, Chris Mackney (aka Christopher Machnij) committed suicide after penning a suicide note and posting it publicly on the internet. The letter alleges that Mackney was a victim of a corrupt family court system, and was being alienated from his young children. His inability to access his children appears to be a major factor in his suicide.

The text of the suicide note was posted on a forum at A Voice For Men in February, without much fanfare. But then Dina Mackney, the departed’s ex-wife decided she did not want anyone to read about the allegations against her. So she used the courts to help her scrub the internet of Chris Mackney’s existence.

When client budgets are tight, there is a reluctance to spend money on professionals such as forensic accountants and private investigators. But I have learned that the do-it-yourself method (either the client doing it or the attorney doing it) often misses the mark. There is a reason why professionals are trained in specialty fields. Simply put, the professionals have training and techniques that go beyond what an attorney can typically do.

Brian Willingham at Diligentia Group (private investigators) wrote an excellent article on attorneys using private investigators. Among the things a professional private investigator can do for a client are locating assets and doing historical reconstructions (such as piecing together family history to locate heirs).

Please read Brian’s full article here.

When a divorcing spouse owns a business, it is imperative to dig into the financial records of the business in order to value it and to determine where the money is going. Tracy Coenen and Miles Mason talk about the documents that a forensic accountant needs in order to evaluate the business.

This article was originally printed in the ABA Section of Family Law eNewsletter, March 2014.

There are many different definitions of income that can be used in family law cases. Local law will play a big part in defining income, but in more complicated cases, other definitions may come into play. The financial expert can help the attorneys and the court to understand the various types of income and why they should be included or excluded from income calculations in a family law case.

The Internal Revenue Code is often a starting point for defining and quantifying income in family law cases. Experienced family lawyers know this is only the tip of the iceberg and doesn’t cover many of the unusual situations that could arise in cases with complicated financial scenarios.

In simpler cases, wage income and business income will be straightforward and will form the basis for calculating child support and spousal support. Undistributed income from a business venture may be an area of contention, but local laws often provide at least basic guidance on including such income in support calculations.

Francine McKenna is an investigative reporter who focuses her writings on the auditing profession. She blogs at re: The Auditors, and also writes for financial publications such as Forbes, The Financial Times, American Banker, and more.

In February, Ms. McKenna wrote about the auditors of AgFeed, a Chinese company involved in an elaborate accounting fraud. In March 2014, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged the company and its top executives with fraud:

With the bulk of its hog production operations in China, the executives used a variety of methods to inflate revenue from 2008 to mid-2011, including fake invoices for the sale of feed and purported sales of hogs that didn’t really exist.  They later tried to cover up their actions by saying the fake hogs died.  Because fatter hogs bring higher market prices, they also inflated the weights of actual hogs sold and correspondingly inflated the sales revenues for those hogs. 

Xyngular is a weight loss MLM (multi-level marketing) company which advertises quick, sustainable weight loss using their products. Last year I wrote a lengthy article about the Xyngular products, and I came to the conclusion that the products are dangerous, the diet is a fad diet (which is almost guaranteed to be unsustainable), and promoters like Jennifer McKinney (MckMama) lie to their potential customers and recruits.

I wanted to provide an update on the Xyngular and Ignite products. My stance hasn’t changed. If anything, I am even more strongly against the products after seeing the things I’m posting here.

Jennifer McKinney is most well known for being the mommy blogger MckMama, as well as for being a serial scammer. Her exploits include fraud on the United States Bankruptcy Court, allegedly stealing money from her mother-in-law, continuing to leave creditors unpaid, and lying about her weight loss in order to recruit people into Xyngular.

World famous extortionist Crystal Cox is allegedly at it again! Cox is most well known for her attack on Kevin Padrick and Obsidian Finance, which resulted in a $2.5 million judgment against her. But the fun didn’t stop there…

Crystal L. Cox intended to file an appeal in the case, tried to rope Attorney Marc Randazza into helping her cause, which ended (well, not really ended) with Cox extorting Randazza and his family. Of course, this wasn’t her first extortion attempt, as she did the exact same thing to Padrick and Obsidian Finance.

Her extortion scam is simple: Write horrible untrue things about business owners on the internet, then ask for money in order to clean up the mess Cox herself made. Call it all “online reputation management services” and ask for a “fee for services” and everything is kosher. Unless you’re on the receiving end of Cox’s extortion attempts.

This article was originally printed in the ABA Section of Family Law eNewsletter, February 2014.

Income tax returns and supporting information such as W-2s and pay stubs are the most common and basic documents which evidence income in family law cases. This article discusses the sources of income that are disclosed on a personal income tax return (Form 1040), and some ways the items can be evaluated to search for hidden income and hidden assets.

• Wages – The figures reported on the income tax return should be matched to the W-2. The W-2 and the pay stubs will provide additional information on the employers, pay rates, total pay, certain benefits, and taxes withheld. Additional analysis may include tracing bank deposits to ensure that all wages were used for the benefit of the family.
• Taxable Interest and Tax Exempt Interest – These items of income must be considered when calculating income available for support. They are also important because they can point to bank, investment, and brokerage accounts that may not have been specifically disclosed in the family law case.

A lifestyle analysis is the process of tabulating and analyzing the income and expenses of the parties. The lifestyle analysis is then used to determine the standard of living of the parties, which will influence support calculations, and possibly property division.

Calculating the lifestyle of the spouses prior to separation can provide insight into the lifestyle the married couple enjoyed and the cost of that lifestyle, as well as the income that was or is required to fund the lifestyle of the married couple. The results may be used to prove a spouse’s financial needs following divorce. In other words, a detailed analysis of the spending during the marriage can be the basis to calculate the funding the spouse needs to maintain a similar lifestyle after divorce.

Habitual criminal Kevin Trudeau is ending up exactly where he belongs…. in prison! Trudeau has a lengthy history of legal problems. He spent 2 years in prison in the 1990s for credit card fraud. In 1996 he settled charges that he was operating an illegal pyramid scheme called Nutrition for Life. In 1998, Trudeau was fined $500,000 for making false claims in infomercials.

Then came Trudeau’s book The Weight Loss Cure ‘They’ Don’t Want You to Know About. The problem was that he misled consumers with his infomercials, making them think his weight loss book would show them an easy weight loss method which allowed them to eat whatever they wanted when they were done. But the diet was not simple. It required colonics performed by a licensed practitioner and injection of a human growth hormone, and it never really ended. Dieters really couldn’t eat whatever they wanted, because the book said they should only eat organic food and avoid brand name foods, fast food, and meals at chain restaurants.