# Would a person have to give his real name in this situation?



## ironpony (Oct 21, 2019)

For my story, the main villain who is the leader of a gang of villains, would want to keep his identity as secret as he could. One of his members has been arrested, and he wants to send over a lawyer to defend him.  He will be paying the lawyer's bills since he has more money than his member.

Now he is going to want to keep his ID a secret.  I wrote it so fat that the main character finds out who he is by looking at the lawyer's billing information.  However, I was told this may be a plot hole, cause why would he give his real name for the billing information.  But doesn't he have to give his real name and that is the whole point on bookkeeping when it comes to bills as oppose to giving a fake name and ID?


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## Umree (Oct 21, 2019)

How would the protagonist find out the personal information of the villain by looking at the lawyer’s files? Those would be confidential. Also, I’m pretty sure you can pay most lawyers in cash.


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## CyberWar (Oct 21, 2019)

Most business transactions these days are conducted digitally, there being more and more restrictions on cash payments. Shady deals, corruption, money laundering and funding of terrorism is why the authorities want to keep the flow of money traceable, which is why the lawyer in question would most probably be required by law to receive his payment by wire from a verifiable bank account to another. At least that's how it's here in my parts these days.

That being said, there's no reason why the villain in question couldn't have a series of offshore bank accounts set up by his underlings and used to launder his ill-gotten gains. He could simply instruct one of these henchmen to transfer the neccessary sum from one such account, which is in no way directly traceable back to him.


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## ironpony (Oct 21, 2019)

Umree said:


> How would the protagonist find out the personal information of the villain by looking at the lawyer’s files? Those would be confidential. Also, I’m pretty sure you can pay most lawyers in cash.



Oh i was thinking the protagonist could break in at night and have a look at the  billing information but not get caught of course.


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## Xander416 (Oct 22, 2019)

He could very much keep his identity secret in this case.


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## ironpony (Oct 22, 2019)

Oh okay.  I don't see why he would need offshore accounts though, in order to keep it secret though, unless I am missing something there.  Would it be worth breaking into the building for, disguised and all, just to see the billing information, if he would possibly keeping his ID a secret though?


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## J.T. Chris (Oct 22, 2019)

ironpony said:


> Oh okay.  I don't see why he would need offshore accounts though, in order to keep it secret though, unless I am missing something there.  Would it be worth breaking into the building for, disguised and all, just to see the billing information, if he would possibly keeping his ID a secret though?



If the protagonist can get one of the off-shore account names / numbers, that might help uncover his true identity.


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## ironpony (Oct 22, 2019)

Okay thanks.  But why offshore though as oppose to a more local bank account?


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## Galen (Oct 22, 2019)

ironpony said:


> For my story, the main villain who is the leader of a gang of villains, would want to keep his identity as secret as he could. One of his members has been arrested, and he wants to send over a lawyer to defend him.  He will be paying the lawyer's bills since he has more money than his member.
> 
> Now he is going to want to keep his ID a secret.  I wrote it so fat that the main character finds out who he is by looking at the lawyer's billing information.  However, I was told this may be a plot hole, cause why would he give his real name for the billing information.  But doesn't he have to give his real name and that is the whole point on bookkeeping when it comes to bills as oppose to giving a fake name and ID?



Hola Ironpony:

IMHO, you are writing a work of fiction, so from the way you describe your character, he would use a lawyer who did not necessarily need his real name.


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## J.T. Chris (Oct 22, 2019)

ironpony said:


> Okay thanks.  But why offshore though as oppose to a more local bank account?



The idea in fiction is that offshore bank accounts allow criminals to transfer money around the world without being traced. I'm fairly certain though that in real life offshore accounts get a lot more scrutiny than they do in the media.


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## ironpony (Oct 22, 2019)

Oh ok, but I don't think the villain would go through that much trouble though, because is using a fake name to pay a lawyer's bills, illegal, as long as they are paid their fees?


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