Legal Question in Bankruptcy in Connecticut

Re: assets

Dave

You don't say whether you filed a bankruptcy petition for yourself, or jointly with your wife. If the CD was in your name (or even jointly with your wife) at the time of the filing of the bankruptcy petition, you should have listed the CD as an asset on your petition (Schedule B item 2). If your name was not on the CD and you could not have withdrawn any of the money from the CD, then it should not have been listed. If that is the case, then you should give a copy of the CD (that shows that it was only in your wife's name)to the Trustee, then amend the petition.

The next problem is the timing of the withdrawal of the money from the CD. If you filed by yourself, the fact that your wife cashed in the the CD and repaid family members, that is ok. If your wife filed your bankruptcy petition with you and then she took the money from the CD (after the bankruptcy petition) then that is a serious problem and she should immediately consult an attorney. It is a crime to spend assets that are the property of the Trustee. If the CD was cashed in before you and your wife filed a bankruptcy petition, then the Statement of Affairs should have listed the amounts paid to your relatives, names, amounts and addresses.

At the time that you filed a bankruptcy petition, you should have listed the CD as an asset, if it was only in your name, you could have exempted a large portion of the CD. If in joint name, then the entire portion could be claimed as exempt (assuming that you did not otherwise exhaust the wild card exemption Section 522(d)(5)).

I hope that this is helpful. Not having all of the facts makes it difficult to answer your question with more details.