Harmony Law, LLC was successful in achieving a major win against a Cook Islands Trust and its “owner.” The case involved the Trust and several entities owned by the Trust which did business in the State of Wyoming, the Commonwealth of Virginia, the State of Florida, the Province of Quebec, the Republic of Malta, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
Harmony Law’s client had a claim for an ownership interest in a $7.5 million firearms and ammunition manufacturing enterprise. The client was kicked out of the operation and shut off from any compensation. The person controlling the Cook Islands Trust moved all the attachable assets into the Trust to keep them out of reach of any potential creditors, including Harmony Law’s client. The Cook Islands Trust had previously been successful in using such tactics to evade other large creditors, including the IRS, Wells Fargo & Sotheby’s.
If you are familiar with Cook Islands Trusts, then you would know that they are one of the favorite entities for asset protection. The provisions of a Cook Islands Trust, and the protective laws of the jurisdiction they are formed under make it very difficult to reach assets placed in a Cook Islands Trust. That partly explains the difficulty creditors had in reaching assets placed in the Trust.
The litigation took three years. It involved actions in four different courts. Despite the great odds against it, Harmony Law did not give up. It continued to advance the case and eventually broke the Trust’s resistance and resolve. Harmony Law achieved a great recovery for its client. The Trust representative’s comment was especially insightful about the strong efforts against the Trust. When we were negotiating a resolution, the Trust representative demanded from his attorney that he should “never hear from Hutchins again in any court globally for any entity related to us.” I take his demand as a compliment to the efforts of Harmony Law to prosecute the case against the Trust.
If you are in need of assistance in pursuing assets fraudulently hidden away, please call Clyde Hutchins at (970) 488-1857. I would be glad to help.