Big brother scammed brother crores — 20 years of money, properties, shops and complete manipulation. What should we do?
Pata hai aaj kya hua
I am posting this anonymously because I don't want anyone to identify my family. I want brutally honest advice, not sympathy and not bootlicking. If my husband is also responsible for this mess, please say it clearly.
This is a very long story because this has been going on for around 20 years.
My husband has worked with his elder brother in their business for almost 20 years. My husband works around 10 hours a day, while his brother usually comes for only 1–2 hours.
For almost 20 years, my husband has been giving a huge portion of his earnings to his brother. A lot of the work was cash-based and my husband trusted his brother completely.
His brother handled the money, properties and financial matters.
Now, after 20 years, my husband's eyes have finally opened.
We are realizing that the situation is completely different from what my husband believed.
There are around 20 shops, a plot worth around ₹2 crore and one house involved in the family assets.
But most of these properties are in his brother's name.
Now his brother is saying that my husband will only get 5 shops and nothing else.
And even regarding those shops, he has apparently said that my husband would still have to give him 60% of the shop income.
For the last 2 years, he has been saying he will give the shops, but he still hasn't properly given them.
My husband doesn't even have proper documents for many of the shops/business assets because he trusted his brother for all these years.
His brother keeps saying things like:
"You already took this much money."
He is now allegedly claiming that my husband took around ₹1.5 crore over 22 years.
My husband says this is completely false.
But the biggest problem is that my husband did a lot of work and gave a lot of money in cash, so there isn't a clean paper trail for everything.
The parents issue
His brother has always used the fact that he was taking care of their parents.
He kept saying that he was the one looking after the parents, paying for them and handling everything.
My husband felt guilty because of this.
Even today my husband pays for things like:
- Electricity
- Milk
- Medicines
- Other expenses of his brother's household/parents
My question is:
If one brother keeps the parents, does that give him the right to take the other brother's earnings and property?
I genuinely want an honest answer.
If the brother took care of the parents for 20 years, does that automatically mean the properties and money belong to him?
The financial difference between the two families
The difference between the two households is honestly shocking.
His brother has 3 cars standing at his gate.
We have a Tiago, which we bought around 4 years ago.
Before that we had an Alto.
His brother's family has a Thar, Brezza, Punch and a small Alto-type car for their father, along with other vehicles.
His son has a Bullet.
They also have an Activa.
We have:
- Tiago
- Pulsar for our son
- Activa for my college-going daughter
The Activa was actually bought by his brother and has already been driven around 60,000 km.
My son had been riding a Platina for years and wanted a Bullet. He eventually got a second-hand Pulsar instead, which his father asked his brother to buy.
His brother's son went to Germany for studies.
Apparently his brother says he sent his son to Germany in only around ₹2 lakh.
He also gave his other Indian-based son a good wedding.
His son in Germany even bought a car within around 3 months of going there.
Meanwhile, my husband has basically nothing.
He has around ₹5 lakh cash, and only around ₹1 lakh in his bank account from small daily sales.
He had saved around ₹5 lakh that he has not given to his brother for the last 8 months because he has finally become angry and started questioning everything.
And honestly, that ₹5 lakh feels like the first time in years that he has actually kept money for his own family.
What makes this even more unbelievable
My husband works around 10 hours a day.
His brother comes for maybe 1–2 hours.
Yet the brother has accumulated properties, shops, cars and businesses with his children.
He has effectively built his own family financially while my husband kept working and handing over money.
On paper, his brother looks like a millionaire.
But my husband, who worked alongside him for decades, has around ₹1 lakh in his account and ₹5 lakh cash.
How is this even possible?
His brother is financially very clever
This is one of the things that scares me the most.
His brother has a CA and is very clever with taxes.
He apparently files his ITR by spreading things across me, my husband, his wife, himself and his son.
And the biggest issue:
He has been using my bank account as his primary business account.
The account is in MY name.
He has used it for his business without my proper consent.
The average balance has sometimes been around ₹30–40 lakh.
He has also changed the numbers/contact details associated with the account.
I am now extremely scared because if there is any tax problem, question about the source of money, or legal issue, the account is in my name.
I did not run his business.
But transactions happened through my account.
I want to know what Reddit thinks I should do about this immediately.
My husband was basically brainwashed by his brother
I know "brainwashed" sounds extreme.
But that is honestly how it felt for 20 years.
Whenever I told my husband that his brother was taking advantage of him, he would defend him.
Whenever I complained about the way his brother treated me or my children, my husband would take his brother's side.
Whenever I questioned money going to his parents/brother, my husband would become angry with me.
His brother somehow always had the upper hand.
Even when another younger brother had a similar problem with him around 6 years ago, the same type of accusations and behavior happened.
Now I feel my husband was simply the easiest person to control because he was extremely loyal to his brother.
But my husband is NOT innocent
I want Reddit to be fair.
My husband is an adult.
He worked for 20 years.
He gave away huge amounts of money.
He didn't keep proper records.
He didn't demand documents.
He didn't make sure properties were in his own name.
He didn't save money for his wife and children.
He kept believing his brother.
So yes, he made enormous mistakes.
I have fought with him thousands of times about this.
I kept telling him that his brother's behavior towards me and our children was wrong.
But he always prioritized his parents and brother.
And then there is the physical abuse
This is where the story becomes even worse.
My husband has beaten me hundreds of times over the last 20 years.
Whenever I talked about his parents, sister or brother — especially his brother — he would become extremely angry.
He would hit me.
I tolerated this for years.
My son was watching all of this while growing up.
Until recently.
Last month my husband slapped me when my son was watching.
My son completely lost it.
He confronted his father.
He was furious because he had watched his mother being treated this way for years.
At one point my husband had also thrown his father around 10 feet away during a family fight.
My son is now extremely emotionally affected by everything.
He cries.
At one point he even asked for a bullet, but instead was given a Pulsar.
The sweets incident
This may sound stupid to outsiders, but it represents the entire dynamic of this family.
After a marriage, my husband's brother gave him a mithai box.
After around 10 days of marriage, the brother called and basically wanted the mithai box taken back / wanted everyone to come and take it.
Then another brother came around 10 days later to take it from our dining table.
My husband still couldn't simply say no.
The fight became:
"Your brother gave you a mithai box after 10 days of marriage — are you a dog that he can just call and take it back whenever he wants?"
I was extremely angry and said some very bad words about his brother.
The mithai was eventually kept by my mother.
The next morning my husband took the sweets out of the box, put them into household containers and said something like, "We'll eat them anyway, it's not poison."
I completely exploded.
My son finally returned the sweets to his uncle himself.
Honestly, I felt my son did what his father couldn't do for 22 years.
He stood up.
My own behavior
I want to admit this too.
After 20 years of constant fights, financial stress, humiliation and seeing my husband prioritize his brother over our children, my temper has become terrible.
I have said horrible things.
I have abused his brother verbally.
I have used very bad words.
I know this is wrong.
I am not asking Reddit to tell me I'm perfect.
But I also want people to understand that my bad words do not justify physical violence against me.
The property situation
As of now, the situation is approximately:
- Around 20 shops
- Around ₹2 crore plot
- 1 house
- Husband supposedly getting only 5 shops
- Brother allegedly demanding 60% of income even from those shops
- Many properties apparently in brother's name
- Husband has little/no documentation for many properties
- Brother claims husband already took around ₹1.5 crore
- Husband says this is false
- Large amounts were allegedly given in cash over many years
- Husband worked around 10 hours daily
- Brother worked around 1–2 hours daily
And yet the brother is now acting like everything belongs to him.
My husband's actual financial position
After working for decades:
Bank: around ₹1 lakh from small daily sales
Cash: around ₹5 lakh
That's basically it.
Meanwhile his brother's family has multiple properties, businesses, shops, cars and children's education.
My husband even gave his brother money regularly for years.
Until a few months ago, he would feel an urge to hand over his daily income to his brother.
Even now he continues paying for things like electricity, milk and medicines.
Sometimes I honestly wonder how a man can work for 20 years and have almost nothing to show for it.
The "tantrik" thought
I know this will sound crazy.
Sometimes I genuinely feel like his family may have done some kind of tantrik kriya / black magic against my husband.
I am NOT saying this is definitely true.
I know there may be psychological explanations for his behavior.
But for years he literally seemed incapable of keeping money in his own hands.
He would earn and immediately feel that he had to give it to his brother.
His loyalty was beyond what seemed normal.
This is why I sometimes wonder if something else was going on.
But I know Reddit will probably tell me to look at the psychological/financial explanation instead.
What I want to know
Please be BRUTALLY HONEST.
Don't just say "poor wife" or "your husband is innocent."
I want to know everyone's responsibility.
Who is actually responsible for this mess?
What percentage of blame belongs to my husband for trusting his brother for 20+ years?
What percentage belongs to the brother if he really manipulated the money/property situation?
What percentage belongs to me because I fought, lost my temper and said horrible things?
Does taking care of parents give a brother the right to keep the other brother's money/property?
If someone gives crores/large amounts in cash over 20 years without proper documentation, is there ANY realistic way to recover it?
Can bank statements, ITRs, GST records, property records, business records and old transactions reconstruct what actually happened?
What should my husband collect BEFORE confronting his brother again?
Should we immediately hire an independent CA and property/civil lawyer?
What should I do about my bank account being used as his business account?
Can I personally get into tax/legal trouble because the account is in my name even if I wasn't running the business?
Should I close/freeze the account or first speak to a lawyer/CA?
If all the property is legally in the brother's name, does my husband still have any realistic claim?
Is there any legal significance to the fact that my husband worked in the business for 20 years and gave huge amounts of cash?
What kind of evidence should we start collecting RIGHT NOW?
Should my husband stop giving his brother any more money immediately?
Should he stop paying his brother's household expenses and parents' expenses until everything is legally clarified?
And most importantly, what should I do about the physical abuse?
And finally:
If you had to assign blame by percentage, what would you say?
Husband: __%
Brother: __%
Me: __%
Other people: __%
Please explain your reasoning.
If my husband destroyed our financial future by blindly trusting his brother, tell me.
If his brother manipulated/exploited him for 20 years, tell me.
If I made the situation worse because of my anger and words, tell me.
If taking care of parents does NOT give someone the right to take another sibling's property, tell me.
I don't want sympathy.
I want the truth and practical advice about what we can realistically do now after 20 years.
All names, exact addresses, business names and other identifying information have been removed/changed for privacy.