More details to this question:
A CPA and had a CPA firm. He died without a will and his wife was appointed administrator of his estate by the probate court. She was going to sell the company but another CPA offered to buy it but never had any money. A purchase agreement was written up but the CPA refused to sign it. The CPA told the wife he needed the business files, client list, and business records so he cloud take the receivables to purchase the business. Based on this promise the wife foolishly gave the files to him. Needless to say he never paid a dime and now he has an attorney who says the clients never existed after the husband died. Is this a criminal or civil matter? The probate is still open, and the business was (is) worth a quarter million dollars a year.
1 ANSWER
A matter can be both civil and criminal. In fact, most criminal cases can also be civil ones - if you are mugged, the mugger can be prosecuted for his crime and sued by you for assault and other torts. This case is really a civil matter, although it is remotely possible that a zealous prosecutor could try to make a criminal matter out of it as well.
Answered on Mar 23rd, 2016 at 1:46 PM