@SuKe I admire your compassion and desire to help your friends but would caution that this is a tale that I have heard before.
Family disputes such as this do not just happen out of the blue, and invariably there is a long history going back decades.
The son cannot be said to be unaware of the situation as he has apparently refused to discuss the matter with his parents, and so he must in fact know the nature of the matter he is refusing to discuss.
Often, the son cannot be the guilty party simply because he is their son in the eyes of the aggrieved party. Therefore there is tendency for the aggrieved to blame the daughter in law who is felt to be acting alone without the son’s knowledge.
This brings us to the question of whether the son could in fact be unaware that his wife has become suddenly wealthier without apparent cause.
If the offending daughter in law is in fact the offender, then what would be the point of her actions if she keeps it so secret that her husband doesn’t know that she now has money to spend on previously unaffordable purchases.
As the aggrieved doesn’t speak French how is it that the aggrieved knows that “The lady at the bank threw up her hands in the air and didn’t seem to know what to do.” Could it be that the bank employee was just unable to understand and deal with a non French speaking client. Was the aggrieved accompanied to the bank by a French speaker, and if so, then why is that person not helping further now.
The lack of French language skills on the part of the aggrieved gives rise to the question of where does the alledged offender live. In the UK perhaps ?
Please do keep in mind that bank statements show what transactions were made, but they are never proof of WHY a transaction was made.
In your original post you mentioned that you are inquiring on behalf of ‘friends’, in the plural, so one presumes that the aggrieved is part of a couple.
Please keep in mind that sometimes the parties to a couple will substantially disagree as to matters of inheritance by offspring who may or may not be children of them both. Sometimes one part of the couple will have adverse feelings towards the spouse of their child, or indeed their step-child’s spouse.
Then there is the question of who actually generated the wealth that is the subject of the allegation. It is not unknown for one part of a couple to come up with a pretty outlandish scheme to pass wealth to another person without the consent of their own partner whom they know would not agree.
I admire your desire to help these folks, but do please keep in mind that some who appear to be helpless victims are not exactly so innocent themselves.
Regrettably, there are people in this world who will shamelessly take advantage of the compassion of others for their own ends, and they are very, very, good at spinning a complex web of deception.
My advice to you is to understand that there is an awful lot more to this matter than meets the eye, and that you should not take anything you are told as being true unless there is corroboration from elsewhere.
I suspect that the background goes back decades, and therefore it will take a great deal of time, and very many questions to get to the bottom of it, if in fact that is ever possible at all.
I wish you well, and sincerely hope that you are not being taken advantage of.
