It was BRUTAL, all right. But not for us. For several cases in advance of ours, the trustee seemed hellbent on destroying lives, stealing candy from babies, pennies from the dead, making enemies, taking names and tossing them into the soul-shredder.
I am NOT exaggerating. I had to share the tale. She was tough as nails, but only on those who deserved it, or seemed to.
Let me reiterate-our meeting was SMOOTH as glass.
We walked into the room promptly at 11:20, in advance of our appointment. I knew there was trouble brewing when we heard the ongoing interview with the debtor at the front of the room.
We sat.
Trustee: ". . . So, can you explain again exactly WHERE the $80,000.00 that was in your bank account five months ago is now?"
debtor: "It's listed right there on the schedule."
trustee: "Yes, it is. However, it is NOT in the bank account."
"I know".
"Where is it now?"
"It's over there in that other account."
"The one that has $12,000.00 in it?"
"Yes, that's it."
"Can you explain why the $80,000.00 is now $12k, instead of 80k? And also explain why both 80k AND 12k are in the bank five months ago, but are not now?"
"I don't know how to answer that. I don't know."
Trustee: "How much was in your business account on filing day?"
"489.00."
Trustee: "This 341 will be continued. Right now, I want you to write me a check for the money that was in your business account. We will be in touch. Oh . . . and I will be sending an appraiser to value your home, personal and business property."
Then it dawned on me. We had drawn one of the most notorious trustees in the BK system. She is the only one who asks for appraisals in almost all of her cases. From what I saw, she ordered appraisals in about 90%.
YIKES. My wife had terrible ideas in her mind, about what we were going to be put through.
Next up were a couple of equally brilliant folks. I may get them muddled, but here are my recollections.
One fellow approached the trustee in a brand new, custom-tailored Armani suit. Or more valuable. Hard to say. He looked like he had just stepped off the private jet and was going to take care of a little dirty business before calling the limo to head back to the club.
Trustee got on the phone. "I think I have the gentleman you mentioned in front of me."
A minute later, here comes the UST, with assistant. She made one comment as she sat: "Ah, I thought you might be the one, when I saw you in the hallway this morning." Not a good thing, I am sure. She sat through the interview, taking notes, not commenting on anything. Just listening.
Depending on which version he told the trustee, and which line on his schedule, he either made 3k per month, 10k per month, or 28k per month. And was filing 7. Or trying to.
Things went downhill from there.
To help matters, his law firm (which I am sure he paid the best money for), sent a fill-in attorney who knew nothing about the case and stared blankly around the room while playing "helicopter" with his tie.
Turns out: The fellow had received a 270k signing bonus from a financial company a year ago.
Trustee: So, you were given a $270,000.00 signing bonus to take a job that pays $3,000.00 per month?"
debtor: "But I made 370k last year."
"You got 270k for taking a job that pays 3k per month?"
"Yes."
Trustee just shook her head. His wife, not filing, makes an additional 18k per month. He claimed that she is responsible for paying all bills and is the main breadwinner. But he was trying to claim all manner of housing related expenses to shift his income lower.
Additionally, he had 3 pages of office equipment and furnishings on his schedule.
Later, he claimed his work equipment amounted to one computer and one desk.
Then a bit later. "I've made over 500k per year for the past several decades, you know."
Not sure if he was bragging, confused, trying to clarify something, or defend himself. It did not help.
There was such a tangled web of properties, investment properties, cash, two houses claimed as homestead property. One for him, one for his wife.
There was one other small matter. An additional 350k had "gone missing" from his retirement accounts. Also, he had not supplied them with bank statements, tax returns and so on.
However he was trying to be helpful. When the trustee ordered an appraisal of ALL property and a list of property owned wholly by the wife, he answered, "I just had an appraisal on everything done. Can I just forward that to you?"
Trustee: "Sure. Send me that exact appraisal. AND we will STILL be conducting our own appraisal."
This guy killed himself, and his case in too many ways to count. All the while, the stand-in attorney sat there gazing into his own personal inner abyss of stupidity.
This gives you some sort of idea. There are many more things I cannot remember.
Now, on to our case.
We were called and went and sat down. We were asked perhaps 9 questions.
We had one irregularity. It was a BMW that we had no room to exempt. She scanned the list of notes she had previously taken about each case and came to it.
We explained that it may or may not be in working order. The dealership had it in for repairs when we filed. She asked, "What do you want to do with it?"
I answered, "We really have no exemption room, so it should go to benefit the creditors."
She nodded, made a couple notes and asked if we had the title with us. We did not. I explained that we lost the title, but could not get a new one in this county without the VIN number, which is on the car-at the dealer, who has refused to return calls. She shook her head, and said, "I'll send an auctioneer. Can you meet him there?"
"Of course," I said, "Happy to help."
Asked if we were surrendering the home. We are.
Asked what we planned to do: "Move in with dad in law."
2 more standard questions and we were out the door.
No appraisal, no hassles, nothing. Smooth.
On the drive back, we realized the VIN number is on our insurance cards. Lawyer told us to call and ask if they want us to retitle and send it to them, or stick to the original plan.
Looks good from this side of the 341.
Too bad some of the other folks were trying to play games with the trustee.
Our attorney suggested that the debtor the UST was interested in would likely head to jail if he didn't come very clean very soon. This particular trustee, UST, and judge are not lenient at all.
Again, this was Florida Middle, in Tampa.
Best wishes,
-dmc
I am NOT exaggerating. I had to share the tale. She was tough as nails, but only on those who deserved it, or seemed to.
Let me reiterate-our meeting was SMOOTH as glass.
We walked into the room promptly at 11:20, in advance of our appointment. I knew there was trouble brewing when we heard the ongoing interview with the debtor at the front of the room.
We sat.
Trustee: ". . . So, can you explain again exactly WHERE the $80,000.00 that was in your bank account five months ago is now?"
debtor: "It's listed right there on the schedule."
trustee: "Yes, it is. However, it is NOT in the bank account."
"I know".
"Where is it now?"
"It's over there in that other account."
"The one that has $12,000.00 in it?"
"Yes, that's it."
"Can you explain why the $80,000.00 is now $12k, instead of 80k? And also explain why both 80k AND 12k are in the bank five months ago, but are not now?"
"I don't know how to answer that. I don't know."
Trustee: "How much was in your business account on filing day?"
"489.00."
Trustee: "This 341 will be continued. Right now, I want you to write me a check for the money that was in your business account. We will be in touch. Oh . . . and I will be sending an appraiser to value your home, personal and business property."
Then it dawned on me. We had drawn one of the most notorious trustees in the BK system. She is the only one who asks for appraisals in almost all of her cases. From what I saw, she ordered appraisals in about 90%.
YIKES. My wife had terrible ideas in her mind, about what we were going to be put through.
Next up were a couple of equally brilliant folks. I may get them muddled, but here are my recollections.
One fellow approached the trustee in a brand new, custom-tailored Armani suit. Or more valuable. Hard to say. He looked like he had just stepped off the private jet and was going to take care of a little dirty business before calling the limo to head back to the club.
Trustee got on the phone. "I think I have the gentleman you mentioned in front of me."
A minute later, here comes the UST, with assistant. She made one comment as she sat: "Ah, I thought you might be the one, when I saw you in the hallway this morning." Not a good thing, I am sure. She sat through the interview, taking notes, not commenting on anything. Just listening.
Depending on which version he told the trustee, and which line on his schedule, he either made 3k per month, 10k per month, or 28k per month. And was filing 7. Or trying to.
Things went downhill from there.
To help matters, his law firm (which I am sure he paid the best money for), sent a fill-in attorney who knew nothing about the case and stared blankly around the room while playing "helicopter" with his tie.
Turns out: The fellow had received a 270k signing bonus from a financial company a year ago.
Trustee: So, you were given a $270,000.00 signing bonus to take a job that pays $3,000.00 per month?"
debtor: "But I made 370k last year."
"You got 270k for taking a job that pays 3k per month?"
"Yes."
Trustee just shook her head. His wife, not filing, makes an additional 18k per month. He claimed that she is responsible for paying all bills and is the main breadwinner. But he was trying to claim all manner of housing related expenses to shift his income lower.
Additionally, he had 3 pages of office equipment and furnishings on his schedule.
Later, he claimed his work equipment amounted to one computer and one desk.
Then a bit later. "I've made over 500k per year for the past several decades, you know."
Not sure if he was bragging, confused, trying to clarify something, or defend himself. It did not help.
There was such a tangled web of properties, investment properties, cash, two houses claimed as homestead property. One for him, one for his wife.
There was one other small matter. An additional 350k had "gone missing" from his retirement accounts. Also, he had not supplied them with bank statements, tax returns and so on.
However he was trying to be helpful. When the trustee ordered an appraisal of ALL property and a list of property owned wholly by the wife, he answered, "I just had an appraisal on everything done. Can I just forward that to you?"
Trustee: "Sure. Send me that exact appraisal. AND we will STILL be conducting our own appraisal."
This guy killed himself, and his case in too many ways to count. All the while, the stand-in attorney sat there gazing into his own personal inner abyss of stupidity.
This gives you some sort of idea. There are many more things I cannot remember.
Now, on to our case.
We were called and went and sat down. We were asked perhaps 9 questions.
We had one irregularity. It was a BMW that we had no room to exempt. She scanned the list of notes she had previously taken about each case and came to it.
We explained that it may or may not be in working order. The dealership had it in for repairs when we filed. She asked, "What do you want to do with it?"
I answered, "We really have no exemption room, so it should go to benefit the creditors."
She nodded, made a couple notes and asked if we had the title with us. We did not. I explained that we lost the title, but could not get a new one in this county without the VIN number, which is on the car-at the dealer, who has refused to return calls. She shook her head, and said, "I'll send an auctioneer. Can you meet him there?"
"Of course," I said, "Happy to help."
Asked if we were surrendering the home. We are.
Asked what we planned to do: "Move in with dad in law."
2 more standard questions and we were out the door.
No appraisal, no hassles, nothing. Smooth.
On the drive back, we realized the VIN number is on our insurance cards. Lawyer told us to call and ask if they want us to retitle and send it to them, or stick to the original plan.
Looks good from this side of the 341.
Too bad some of the other folks were trying to play games with the trustee.
Our attorney suggested that the debtor the UST was interested in would likely head to jail if he didn't come very clean very soon. This particular trustee, UST, and judge are not lenient at all.
Again, this was Florida Middle, in Tampa.
Best wishes,
-dmc
Bankruptcy Wizard
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