Clients often ask us if their personal bankruptcy will be successful. Of course, we can’t guarantee results. However, one thing we can guarantee is that any misstatements on the Petition or Schedules will result in increased scrutiny and likely no discharge.
In a recent case in Louisiana, a married couple were charged criminally for giving a false statement in bankruptcy proceedings and fraud; they “knowingly and fraudulently devised and intending to devise a scheme and artifice to defraud and for the purpose of executing and concealing such a scheme and artifice.” Essentially, they failed to list properties they owned or had a legal interest in. Initially, the proceedings were in the bankruptcy court.
Eventually, the proceedings landed in federal criminal court because they failed to disclose the sale of a business and the sale of a home and made such false statements on their bankruptcy petition, under the pains and penalties of perjury.
What happens to the Louisiana couple is of less importance to us than the fact that we must rigorously maintain the integrity of our clients’ bankruptcy petitions. This is the reason we insist on meeting with all clients personally for a full intake interview, and the reason we ask for so many documents before filing the bankruptcy.