A 52-year-old Colorado Springs man says he converted his life savings -- $500,000 -- into gold and then tossed it all into a trash bin, all so he could keep it from his wife of 25 years from getting a penny of it in their divorce settlement.
"Damn right I did," Earl Ray Jones said in a deposition to his wife's divorce attorney, the Colorado Springs Gazette reported. Jones says he raided the couple's retirement and investment accounts and converted it all into gold bars and coins -- about 22 pounds worth.
Jones then says, during several trips, he took the fortune and tossed it into a trash bin behind a Colorado Springs motel.
That is, if it actually happened. There were no witnesses to the gold dumping, so far no landfill operators or truckers have found any treasure and at least one Colorado Springs divorce attorney is skeptical of Jones' story. "Based on normal human conduct, one would believe that it's out there somewhere, and that he knows where it is," Phil Dubois, who has no connection with the case, said to the Gazette.
But as incredible as it may sound, disgruntled husbands have been known to go to extreme lengths to hide assets from their spouses during an ugly divorce. So common, and apparently relatively easy to do, Forbes has put together a list of five ways to look out for a husband who is hiding assets.
But hiding assets during a divorce isn't just sneaky, it's also illegal. And it happens "much more frequently than most women suspect," according to divorce consultant Jeffrey Landers.
Jones is being held at the Teller County jail awaiting to be sentenced next month for allegedly abusing his wife and holding her captive at their home.
Related
Before You Go
