Another reason why an omission is a false oath is because testimony given by a debtor at the 341a meeting of creditors is given under oath. At this meeting of creditors, the debtor is first sworn in by the trustee. After the debtor is sworn in, the trustee proceeds to ask the debtor questions. One of the questions asked of debtor is whether or not he read the petition before signing it. He is then asked if he has any corrections to be made today, and if there are any errors or omissions, now is the time to make those corrections in the recorded testimony. So, if the debtor answers affirmatively to the first question, and negatively to the succeeding question, then in our earlier example, where debtor actually owns a yacht docked in the Bahamas which is not disclosed anywhere in his petition, debtor perjured himself and made a false oath and should not be entitled to a discharge.

“The subject matter of a false oath is material and warrants denial of discharge if it is related to the debtor’s business transactions, or it concerns the discovery of assets, business dealings or the existence or disposition of the debtor’s property.” Thus an omission regarding business matters is a different issue altogether. The standard of scrutiny would be a lot stricter.

Lawrence Bautista Yang is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and has been in law practice for thirty years. He specializes in bankruptcy, business and civil litigation and has handled more than five thousand successful bankruptcy cases in California. He speaks Mandarin and Fujien and looks forward to discussing your case with you personally. Please call (626) 284-1142 for an appointment at 1000 S Fremont Ave Bldg A-1 Suite 1125 Unit 58 Alhambra, CA 91803