Whilst the personal lives and legal issues of the rich and famous are commonly reported in the press, it is rare for divorce law to take the spotlight, but a post that has gone viral has ignited a debate about ethics and legality.
The case in question involves the football player Achraf Hakimi, who according to an unsubstantiated but widely spread report, avoided paying his ex-wife Hiba Abouk after it was revealed that all of his earnings and assets are in his mother’s name.
There are a lot of reasons to be suspicious of this report, as there is little substantiation, few details, and the story is complicated by other criminal charges against the Paris Saint-Germain player as well as the fact that Ms Abouk is a successful and wealthy actress in her own right.
Even taking the story at face value, what he did or attempted to do would be illegal, at least according to UK law, and in many European countries the law surrounding marriage and divorce is similar.
British courts take an exceptionally dim view of fraud, particularly when it comes to trying to hide assets either during bankruptcy cases or divorce cases. In both cases, other people are legally entitled to a share of these assets.
During a divorce settlement, joint and individual assets are disclosed fully and frankly, with a court deciding ultimately who gets what if both parties cannot agree to a financial agreement.
The oldest trick in the book, in this case, would be to try to hide or deliberately dispose of assets so that the other party in the divorce does not get them, but the court has several powers to ensure honesty in the court proceedings, with several penalties up to and including prison sentences for offenders.
Typically this involves either transferring money or liquid assets to illiquid assets (ones that cannot easily be exchanged for money) or risky investments, transferring property and assets to a company, dissolving a company and transferring its assets to a new company, or transferring assets to another family member.
The two main ways courts will enforce an agreement is through either a “freezing order” or a Mareva injunction that freezes assets during court proceedings to stop them from being hidden whilst they are being added and calculated.
Alternatively, an avoidance of disposition order or “add back” ruling can help to stop attempts to get around the courts.
For more information and advice from divorce solicitors in Surrey, get in touch today.
