SSDI granted in 2008. After a few months, worked at office when feeling good; at home when he was not up to coming in. Approx. 3-6 mo. later, he came to work on a regular basis, working 7-8.5 hrs/day. His employees can attest to this, as well as the landlords of office space. He would "pay" himself thru co. benefits in lieu of salary, i.e., gas, ez-pass tolls, meals, travel, parking, cell phones for himself and family, etc. I did secretarial work for him and was told he was allowed to do these things and which credit cards should be used for business or personal expenses; ie medical, food, etc. I asked if he was allowed to work, he said yes, as an officer of the companies, he was allowed to make sure the businesses were running smoothly. Should I report this and, if so, how?
I believe that there are others who are reporting him as well. I am concerned for my well-being, but also concerned what this will do to my adult children and their family,
First, it is extremely important that you not threaten to report or not report in exchange for anything from your ex. I don't see anything in what you wrote indicating you would do that ... I just mention it generally because many times in a divorced situation things like this lead to threats "I'll report you unless you do X..." and that is something that is not okay and so I generally remind people to be very careful with that kind of thing. You should consult a lawyer about this to see if there are consequences to you under any jointly filed tax returns prior to the divorce. That would be the main concern from my perspective. Apart from your potential liability, the only issue a "moral" one about whether you feel obligated to report him or not. That is a question of what you feel obligated to do morally. Many people in your shoes would not feel obligated to report since they have moved on from the marriage and because it was the ex who committed the fraud unbeknownst to the spouse.
Threatening him with this in exchange for something for you is illegal. Also, if you signed off on tax returns that said he didn't work, you both committed tax fraud, regardless of who filled out what. This is a very sensitive thing that you would be foolish to try to deal with, without legal help.
If there was fraud, you need to proceed extremely carefully if you were benefiting from it financially. I don't know what his restrictions were. Sometimes the Social Security administration will let someone work and try to get off of disability, I think they call it the road to work. But if it was being abused and he's actually not disabled, then yes it was fraud, and if they agreed they will come in and take back all the funds that were illegally paid, and it sounds like some of those will be coming from you. You really need to get to counsel. I don't know if you can get some kind of innocent spouse relief or not, but it's way beyond the scope of this board.
