Forgery by wife and notary leads to $10000 loss

[ConflictinVA]

Real question:
Can I get my money back? From whom?

Background:
My wife wanted to sell our condo and buy a bigger place, a townhouse. Both locations were in the state of Virginia. I was opposed to the idea.
My wife forged my signature on two power of 'Power of Attorney' documents. One POA was to sell the condo and another POA was to buy a property. These POA's were then notarized by a Notary, who is my wife's best friend. The signatures are clearly not mine. In addition, I was overseas on that day.
My wife then put down a deposit of $10,000 from a joint checking account and signed the purchase agreement, her signature, followed by the text (POA for my name). She, then went on to sign additional documents, (inspection, radon, remove the financing contingency clause, etc.). We actually had a purchase contract, all squared away and correct.
I come back in the country and when I find out, I am furious and cancel the contract. I lost the $10,000.
My wife and me separated after a few months after that incident. (divorce pending currently). I have a copy of all the docs, including the forged POA, which I got from our real estate agent, after threatening to turn him to the licensing board.
I am not sure what the real estate agent's role is, but my wife actually gave him $1,000, in cash. I withdrew the $1,000 in person, so I have hundreds and not lots of twenties. Went to the real estate agent's house and personally witnessed my wife handing over the money.
I am a foreigner, so have no idea how real estate works in the US. she told me it is customary to give $1,000 to the agent, when the deal falls thru at the last minute. really?
My question is - Is there some way I can get my money and associated costs back? From each of them, severally or jointly?
Based on all the hours spent watching L&A, what these two did qualifies as a conspiracy, for $500,000 (the value of the purchase contract)
When I approached an attorney, he said 'You can file a criminal complaint with the police, but the complaint will go no where, as state attorney's office don't give a sh*t about cases where spouses are involved. '. The attorney waived half of his customary 1 hour consultation fee, despite spending over 1.5 hours with me.
So, the attorney is a nice guy. But, what about me?
Do I really have no options?

What if my wife has taken out loans, using another forged and notarized POA? What if she took out a balloon payment loan, with all repayment of interest and principal due in 2011? Then I have to spend $$ to prove the POA is a forgery. Can I preempt this in any way? I am from India. Under Indian criminal law, there is a provision for anticipatory bail under Section 438 of the Criminal Procedure Code. This provision allows a person to seek bail in anticipation of an arrest on accusation of having committed a non-bailable offense. On filing AB, the opposition party is notified about the bail application and the opposition or public prosecutor can the contest the bail application in court.
Do you have something like that in the US? What about anticipated fraud? in civil courts at least? I find it hard to believe that I am making legal history here......
I am really standing butt nakkid here?
Thanks very much!

 

[cyjeff]

We are not going to second guess an attorney you spent an hour and a half with.

 

[tpajet]

Wow. What a mess. First of all, I'm assuming you have a social security number. That would be needed in order to take out a loan. What you need to do is get a copy of your credit report from the three major credit agencies. You are entitled to a fee copy once per year. Go to www.annualcreditreport.com and start with that. This will show you your credit reports. By the way, you can select the option to be able to return back for one month, but you also have the option to print the copies.

When you see the reports, look for any and all loans. Keep in mind that some debts may show up more than once, usually mortgages. That's because a mortgage can get sold from one lender to another. But you want to look for any debts or lines of credit that you don't know about. Also, they will give you info on how to lock your credit. What this means is the credit agencies will show a lock on your credit report. When you go to get credit (a loan, mortgage, credit card, etc) you will have to go to the bureau's website and unlock it for that purpose. It can be a bit of a pain, but at the same time, she won't be able to open anything in your name. But this needs to be an absolute priority for you. And I mean when you finish reading this, go to that website and take care of this NOW.

Secondly, look for a lawyer who will give a free consultation. There are many out there that do this, and many of them also won't charge any fees unless they get a settlement or win your case. But keep in mind too that something like this can drag out, so since you are already in the process of a divorce, I would include this in the divorce proceedings.

Something you have to remember about American law is that what she did was illegal, but there are lots of cases to deal with, and yours will fall a bit lower on the priority list. Also that lawyer you talked to may be full of $**t too. Keep in mind, they want cases they can win, and the less work the better for them. So if they think it's something that will take up lots of time for not so much return, they will just blow you off, and in this case charge you half a fee that shouldn't have been charged in the first place.

Oh, and by the way, you need to contact your state attorney's office and let them know what her notary friend did. That person will loose their notary, and may face criminal charges.