United States v. Cluck
United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
143 F.3d 174 (1998)
Elwood Cluck (defendant), an attorney, moved assets around before filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy -- returning a $50,000 note owed to him by a former client and pawning several vehicles, a boat, a plane, and a Winnebago to a used-car dealer for $32,000. Cluck failed to disclose either the pawned property or his accounts receivable on his required bankruptcy schedules. After his debts were discharged, he collected roughly $150,000 from the receivables he hadn't disclosed, and his wife's company reacquired the pawned property from the dealer, none of which was reported to the bankruptcy trustee. The bankruptcy court found Cluck had intentionally concealed assets, and he was convicted of bankruptcy fraud, sentenced to prison, and ordered to pay restitution.
Whether multiple separate circumstances, each individually insufficient to prove fraudulent intent, can be considered together to establish intent to defraud in a bankruptcy-fraud prosecution.