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Embezzlement and Mismanagement in closely held corp.? Any recourse?
by angelina86, Performer
- Created: October 9, 2010, 5:36 pm
While going through our divorce my now ex continually took money from our business and kept access of all records and money from me. With the divorce over I have the business and found $170,000 in unpaid bills, he ruined my credit so a loan was out of the question and told the community bank we dealt with it was I who was taking the money so they would not loan any. As equal shareholders originally should he not have given me an equal distribution?
He used defamation by telling the bank I was stealing business income and actually 'fired' me in front of employees as he was the corp.. president and I was only secretary and treasurer, for stealing corp.. money, which he had no proof of and I did not do, changed the locks on the office, safe and bank accounts 4 times and eventually removed all records so I had no access to financials when it came to mediation and what the income was or bills paid
He removed $45,000 worth of furnishings from the business prior to mediation, knowing he intended to force me into taking it. Several months after taking over I found wiretapping and computer monitoring on my office equipment he had been and was still monitoring from his house.
He used 2 key employees to gang up on me at the business to help him hide money, lie to cover assets he took, prepare his divorce work, meet with his attorney, remove funds , records from the property and in general harass me all on corp. time. One I tried to fire 4 months prior after discovering marital property he was selling for the ex and we met with our attorneys, drawing an agreement my ex signed agreeing to be his immediate supervisor, not allow him in our nightclubs while off duty, put a door on my office with a lock due to my fear from him and other things which he never lived up to, even allowing this man to drink on the house. I found the contract with this employee's signature authorizing the wiretapping and both of these employees had their own passwords to log on and monitor me. I just came from court having to pay this employee $5000 for his last weeks wages when he was working at a property owned in my ex.'s name and not for the corp.. and items he claimed were on the corp. property he had no proof of because I now own 100% of the corp. and my ex had paid him using corp.. checks in the past! Whats wrong with this picture?
I' reported the wiretapping and computer monitoring to authorities but they don't seem interested and talked to various attorneys about the other but no one seems to take any of it seriously or say it would be too expensive to do anything about. Should I just walk away or is there anything that can be done? The attorneys say it was a product of the divorce, which it was but still illegal and unfair.
Financially its been rough but I survived. It is time now to justify things if at all possible. He took thousands in money from the business, left nothing for me to work with and I should have been entitled to the same monetarily that he took. Is there anywhere to turn to make this right?
Jayne

NicoleD | Former Moderator | 10/11/2010 - 10:50 am
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