Fraudulent Misrepresentation and Concealment

Greed in action usually breeds fraud, deceit and a ruthless obsession to cheat and steal.  With fraud, there is no such thing as “business,” it is always personal.

There is no other way to say it – fraud is an epidemic in today’s business culture.  Fraud is the making of an intentional material misrepresentation to another for purposes of hiding the truth and, when that information is relied upon to someone’s detriment, a claim can arise under the law.  Here’s a fact – fraud temporarily works.  Unquestionably, when someone “cooks the books,” makes false statements to procure money or property, artificially inflates stock value, pumps and dumps a stock, steals commissions by hiding profits, or takes money for a construction project they aren’t licensed to perform, it works in the short term.   It sounds unsettling, but the reality is unless the victim of a fraudulent misrepresentation or concealment stands up for themselves, fraud works indefinitely.

Fraudsters hone their skills over time.   Manipulation is an artform and, again, it works until someone is caught and brought to justice.   In our practice, we have seen firsthand how some businesses and business owners actually make a cost-benefit choice to steal and cheat employees, agents and the general public.   Yes, the reality is that fraud works to put money in the pocket of greedy individuals and only one or two in a hundred will ever bring a claim to court.

Speaking from our experience, the perpetrators of fraud rarely act alone and their conduct leaves a trail of patterns throughout time. Here again, information gathered from our signature investigations is key to obtaining relief, getting your money back and, most importantly, healing from the trauma caused by greedy individuals seeking to line their own pockets through fraudulent misrepresentation and concealment schemes.

At the end of the day, people make investments in life trusting the representations made by the people running corporations, partnerships and limited liability companies.  Yet, no matter how big the corporation may be, ultimately, some people believe they can make money by breaching trust and providing knowingly false information to obtain money or property.    In some cases, fraudsters use companies as a front to hide their reputation with the intent to steal and deceive or represent that they are licensed to perform construction work or manipulate corporate documents to skim profits and employee commissions.   In each case, the individuals running the scheme are betting that victims just go away or that they can talk their way out of liability.  Worse still are situations where the business bully makes a victim believe its “their fault” for things not working out.

Corporations, limited liability companies and partnerships are legal structures for the operation of a business.  Business organizations function as well as the people who operate and control them.

Agreements are only worth the paper they are printed on; it is the people standing behind that paper that make the difference.

Unfortunately, most of the disputes related to fraudulent misrepresentation or concealment relate to one of the parties becoming the bully and fraudster of the transaction.   They have calculated being caught and use illegally gotten gains towards legal representation to limit your recovery.   These Bullies do not discriminate, and anyone can become a victim.

There are a thousand reasons for a fraudulent misrepresentation or concealment claim.  For each reason, there are laws to protect an individual, partner, shareholder or investor from being defrauded through misrepresentation or hiding material facts from plain sight for deceptive purposes. Each situation is unique and requires careful analysis and application of different legal tools.

By the time you are looking for a lawyer to consult to handle this type of dispute, you are usually past the point of trying to amicably work things out and there is substantial money or property missing.   In this case, we believe it is time to stand up for yourself and we are here to support you.   We are heavy-handed in our pre-suit reconnaissance and believe information is the key to gaining the upper hand in any business dispute.   Our unorthodox approach to investigations is directed at making a meaningful attempt to resolve the case before it even gets filed and becomes a matter of public record.   In many instances, business bullies do not want to be exposed for fraud and become willing to resolve matters when presented with evidence of wrongdoing in a business dispute.