9/15/25: This article was updated with video evidence that Judge Van den Bergh read a June 2022 Sands Motion which contained evidence that Asst. County Prosecutor Marieh Tanha had allegedly lied under oath in order to hide marital assets.
by P.D. Lesko
Asst. County Prosecutor Marieh Tanha focuses on the County Prosecutor’s domestic violence cases. Her ex-husband David Mathieu is a former police officer, and a disabled veteran with a Master’s Degree in Criminal Justice. Their 2022 divorce involving two minor children was contentious. Allegations that Tanha repeatedly perjured herself in sworn statements submitted to the 22nd Circuit Court during divorce proceedings, including in a deposition, and hid marital assets, came up at a Sept. 3, 2025 hearing before Circuit Court Judge Jinan Hamood in response to Tanha’s petition to once again extend the PPO against her husband.
The allegations against Washtenaw County Asst. Prosecutor Marieh Tanha come at a time when Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit is running to serve as Michigan’s AG. He was asked in an email how he intends to handle the allegations against his employee. He has not yet responded.
As he investigated his own marital finances in preparation for his divorce, David Mathieu discovered that a relationship he thought was a partnership, was not. Mathieu says he discovered Tanha had hidden assets and ownership of property in Sweden from him. Mathieu claims his wife told him she’d closed her Wells Fargo checking and savings accounts in 2012. Then, Mathieu found evidence of $27,000 in wire transfers from a Wells Fargo account into a PNC bank account owned by his wife and her brother which, at one point in 2021, statements show contained hundreds of thousands of dollars.
David Mathieu said in an email, “She [Tanha] always claimed her and her family didn’t have any money because they had to leave Iran….If I [had known] of any money in her accounts that was hers or her mother’s, I sure as hell would have had her mom pay the over $3,000 that I paid for her immigration attorney fees. Point is, I didn’t know!”
Mathieu sued Tanha for divorce in Aug. 2021, he says, because a therapist from the VA with whom he worked for several years advised him that his anxiety was the result of his wife’s gaslighting and psychological abuse.
Undisclosed Bank Accounts and Real Estate in Sweden
The transcript of a deposition made under oath, as well as notarized financial disclosures submitted by Marieh Tanha to the 22nd Circuit Court during her divorce proceedings are attached to a Motion filed by Mathieu’s attorney on June 8, 2022. The records show Tanha repeatedly denying she owned (and co-owned with her brother) property in Sweden (property gifted her by her parents). The first notarized financial disclosure dated Feb. 2022 submitted to the Court by Tanha omitted bank accounts, retirement accounts, investment accounts, and failed to disclose Tanha’s ownership of real estate and undeveloped property in Sweden (including property which was subject to a division of marital assets).
Attached to Mathieu’s June 2022 Motion asking for a redivision of marital assets are years of PNC bank statements for accounts held by Tanha jointly with her brother and her mother and sent to Tanha’s home. The bank statements show Tanha’s PNC accounts receiving large deposits in the form of international wire transfers.
Public records obtained by an attorney hired by J.P. Mathieu show in 2018 Marieh Tanha signed a Swedish power of attorney over her banking in Sweden naming an aunt in that country.
PNC bank statements provided to the Court in Mathieu’s June 2022 Motion also document direct transfers of large sums between banks located in the United States.
David Mathieu says none of these transfers of funds was declared as income on the joint income tax returns submitted to the IRS and the State of Michigan by he and his then wife. International transfers of funds have specific IRS reporting requirements even if the transfer is not considered income.
During the Sept. 3, 2025 hearing, a calm Judge Hamood said, “This is ridiculous. This is not TV. And stop with the faces.” She was speaking to two lawyers, Tanha, David Mathieu and his brother J.P. Mathieu, present to testify on David’s behalf against Tanha’s request that the PPO naming her husband be extended by Judge Hamood.
Marieh Tanha’s lawyer Nik Lulgjuraj was badgering witness J.P. Mathieu; J.P. Mathieu was disagreeing with Lulgjuraj’s questions and taking exception to his tone; David Mathieu interjected a comment; David Mathieu’s attorney Lisa Efros raised objections before Lulgjuraj had finished his questions; Lulgjuraj raised objections before Efros could finish her questions. Judge Hamood called the behaviors “out of order.”
The allegations of perjury in the court against Asst. Prosecutor Marieh Tanha came out after Judge Hamood allowed J.P. Mathieu to answer a question put to him by Lulgjuraj. Lulgjuraj asked J.P. Mathieu if he had hired an attorney in Sweden to look into Tanha. Lisa Efros objected. Lulgjuraj told Judge Hamood that the question was relevant, because it went to J.P. Mathieu’s credibility (“He will say and do anything on behalf of his brother, your Honor.”).
J.P. Mathieu’s answer to Lulgjuraj’s question elicited clarifying questions from the Judge, who took notes as J.P. Mathieu testified.
Watch Judge Hamood question witness J.P. Mathieu about evidence of Asst. County Prosecutor Marieh Tanha’s alleged perjury in the courts in order to hide marital assets.
Alleged Perjury by an Asst. County Prosecutor
In Michigan, judges are required to report attorney misconduct to the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission. A judge in Michigan has the discretion to report perjury but is not strictly mandated to do so in every instance; a judge can immediately refer a witness to the prosecuting attorney or police for investigation if a reasonable presumption of perjury exists.
David Mathieu’s lawyer, in a follow-up to Lulgjuraj’s question, asked J.P. Mathieu, “What was the purpose of a Swedish lawyer being involved?”
J.P. Mathieu said: “Part of the [divorce] case, she [Tanha] never disclosed her properties on her annual forms. Under oath, she signed that she didn’t own properties.”
J.P. Mathieu added that he had worked with a Swedish lawyer.
“I also worked with the Swedish tax authority. I found out she not only owned property she lied about, but she also did not disclose she was making money from that on their marital income,” testified J.P. Mathieu. “Under her second [financial disclosure] form—she actually did a declaration stating she’s never paid taxes [property taxes on properties located in Sweden] when in fact she had paid taxes on two of those properties. I have the tax forms from the Swedish tax authority. There were several instances where we had to confirm, and once we confirmed that, we provided that to the Court. Under oath, her deposition transcript, her answers under oath she said she did not own any properties, well in fact she did and we found them.”
“The Court” to which the evidence of Tanha’s alleged perjury was first revealed was Judge Tracy Van den Bergh.
Evidence of Tanha’s alleged perjury and her alleged hiding of martial assets was submitted to Judge Van den Bergh in anticipation of a hearing under the legal principle established in Sands v Sands. A so-called “Sands hearing” allows a court to adjust marital asset distribution or award attorney fees due to a party’s deceptive conduct during divorce proceedings. The concept is that misconduct, such as attempting to conceal assets, can lead to financial penalties for that party.
The 22nd Circuit Court’s Register of Actions shows Judge Van den Bergh never held the Sands hearing.
J.P. Mathieu said in an email after the Sept. 3, 2025 hearing: “I know that TVB (Judge Tracy Van den Bergh) should have received the property/income from the property in Sweden through the Sands Motion, but she stayed the Motion pending trial. So, to say she had the documents and even read them is another story.”
However, a video of the June 2022 hearing before Judge Van den Bergh for which David Mathieu’s Sands Motion was submitted (including evidence that Tanha had allegedly lied under oath to the Court in order to hide marital assets) shows the Judge telling the participants: “I’ve read your motions and I’ve read your responses.”
David Mathieu said in an email, “TVB (Judge Van den Bergh) should have stopped court/done something/reported her [Tanha] to AGC! Doing her ethical job could have saved my children and I years of misery, PPO extensions, police harassment, poverty, etc….”
J.P. Mathieu provided the Ann Arbor Independent public Swedish property and tax authority records that show Tanha was the owner or co-owner of multiple properties in Sweden when she submitted her first financial disclosure to the 22nd Circuit Court in which she failed to disclose she owned the properties. Public records obtained by J.P. Mathieu and provided to the court in June 2022 show Tanha was billed in her own name for taxes on property in Sweden.
In her second financial disclosure, Tanha included a statement in which she swears she never paid property taxes on her four Swedish holdings. In the statements, Tanha also says she did not know the properties found by J.P Mathieu’s Swedish attorney were gifted to her by her parents. Yet, in 2021/2022 J.P. Mathieu’s Swedish attorney unearthed a tenancy lease for one of the properties in Marieh Tanha’s name in which Marieh Tanha is named as the landlord.
As a student at the University of Arizona, Marieh Tanha co-authored the article, “The Use of Coercive Control as a Motivational Factor for Intimate Partner Violence.” Tanha’s research (762 divorcing couples were studied) concludes that an overemphasis on physical violence can lead to coercive behaviors being overlooked as the true foundation of intimate partner violence. In a college press release about the publication of the article, Tanha is quoted as saying, “When it comes to partner abuse cases, coercive control holds a particularly and important nature. Gender doesn’t matter when you hit that point.” Tanha’s research took on the previously held belief that women are rarely abusers.
Researchers in the fields of sociology, criminology, domestic violence and psychology have concluded financial dishonesty is a tool of coercive control.
The Mathieu/Tanha Divorce
In 2023, the A2Indy investigated Judge Van den Bergh’s handling of the Mathieu/Tanha divorce case, including her order that David Mathieu, who has never been the subject of a domestic violence complaint, has no convictions and no criminal record, whose psychiatric evaluation concluded he suffers from anxiety, complete a months-long domestic violence course designed for habitual, convicted domestic abusers on probation. Mathieu is currently completing his third domestic violence course.
The result of the newspaper’s investigation was a Nov. 2023 article which Judge Van den Bergh criticized from the bench.
At a Motion Hearing heard by Judge Van den Bergh, Marieh Tanha testified under oath that “a reporter had contacted her ‘boss’ to say she (Tanha) had perjured herself.” The newspaper had submitted a FOIA request for information about cases Tanha had worked on and pay records.
Tanha went on to testify that the same reporter had submitted a Freedom of Information Act seeking public records about her. That, Tanha told Judge Van den Bergh, had “frightened her.” In a video recording of that Motion Hearing, Tanha testified as fact to Judge Van den Bergh the falsehood that the A2Indy’s FOIA request had been submitted “on behalf” of David Mathieu to “harass her.”
Shortly after the publication of the Nov. 2023 article about Judge Van den Bergh’s handling of the Mathieu/Tanha divorce case, Judge Van den Bergh secretly asked the County Sheriff to conduct an investigation into David Mathieu’s “behavior.”
In his social media posts in November and December 2023, David Mathieu linked to the Ann Arbor Independent’s Nov. 5, 2023 article. As a result, the Sheriff’s Case Report includes a copy of the newspaper’s Nov. 5, 2023 article. The Sheriff’s investigator “investigated” the contents of the Nov. 5, 2023 Ann Arbor Independent article and concluded that the reporting was factual. Investigation of the free press by law enforcement is a violation of the First Amendment protections afforded to newspapers to gather and disseminate news.
The Sheriff’s Case Report showed Tanha had participated in the Sheriff’s secret investigation of her ex-husband, as had Tanha’s divorce lawyer, Nik Lulgjuraj.
In a subsequent petition to Judge Van den Bergh to extend the PPO naming David Mathieu, Tanha brought up the A2Indy’s Nov. 2023 article and the fact that it had been read by her work colleagues and this had caused her embarrassment. Van den Bergh extended the PPO.
In a reshuffle of Judge Van den Bergh’s docket, the Mathieu/Tanha divorce case was reassigned to Judge Hamood.
“I Would Submit to a Polygraph Test”
David Mathieu said in an email: “I would consent to a polygraph regarding any lie that Marieh has told the last four years to get the complete advantage in the divorce, PPO, etc….”
The September 3, 2025 hearing before Judge Hamood was held in response to yet another petition by Marieh Tanha to extend the PPO naming her ex-husband. Mathieu says his wife’s actions have forced him to go into debt and spend over $42,000 on supervised visits with his children and over $200,000 on lawyers to vindicate himself and to draw the Court’s attention to the fact his ex-wife has misrepresented the interactions between them when exchanging the children for supervised visitation, called the police to harass him, and abused the courts to extend a PPO.
Coercive debt is also a form of financial abuse and coercive control, according to researchers. An abuser uses threats or other forms of intimidation to make the victim take on debt. In the case of David Mathieu, the trial court has done Tanha’s work for her.
While questioning J.P. Mathieu, Tanha’s lawyer Nik Lulgjuraj brought up the fact David Mathieu has not begun treatment with clinical psychologist Dr. Lewis Okun. While Judge Hamood cut off Lulgjuraj’s questions on the subject, a better question would be who in the trial court forced David Mathieu into treatment with Dr. Okun. Okun was sanctioned for violations of the Public Health Code.
State records show Dr. Okun, while supervising a social worker in training, eventually learned the social worker had carried on a 10-month affair with a same-sex patient. While Okun told the social worker she would have to close her practice, he did not report the incident or his supervisory handling of it to state officials. Dr. Okun was charged by the Michigan Health Professions Board of Psychology Disciplinary Subcommittee with violating MCL 331.1101, et. seq., section 16221(a),(b)(i)and (i) of the Michigan Public Health Code, put on probation and fined.
In the midst of extending the initial PPO against her husband, in her capacity as an Asst. County Prosecutor Marieh Tanha participated in a 2022 panel discussion about domestic violence in Washtenaw County. Tanha explains, “It’s our job as prosecutors to ‘build a story’ around the victim….It’s so important we recognize the ‘flags,’ the things that really tell the story of what really is happening here, and not focus so much on the single or few physical actions of the case.”
In the case of David Mathieu, prior to the ex parte PPO requested by his ex-wife and granted against him by Judge Van den Bergh, there was not a single physical action, or a single charge of domestic violence. There was just the sworn testimony of ex-wife Marieh Tanha, testimony contradicted by her deposition in which she says she is not afraid of her husband, and does not believe he would ever harm their children.
Tanha’s 2022/2023 Financial Disclosures Submitted to the Court
Court records show that on Feb. 16, 2022, Marieh Tanha submitted a signed, notarized financial disclosure to the 22nd Circuit Court in which she was asked to list all of her assets and all of debts.
Under the section which required Tanha to list all financial accounts, including all bank accounts, she listed one joint checking and savings account held with David Mathieu, and one checking and savings account (at the same financial institution) with only herself as the account holder. In her individual accounts, she declared a total balance in both of $5,773. Under real property in which she owns an interest, Tanha lists only the home purchased with David Mathieu.
On her first financial disclosure, Tanha lists her gross monthly income as $7,398 ($88,776 annually) [this is a public record because Tanha is a public employee]. Tanha’s Feb. 2022 list of her personal property is topped by two rifles and two handguns.
The disclosure asks whether any money or assets “are being held for your benefit,” and the “no” box is checked.
PNC bank statements in the name of Marieh Tanha and her brother, as well as Marieh Tanha and her mother were obtained by David Mathieu’s attorney through subpoena to a bank Tanha had failed to list on her February 2022 financial disclosure but whose existence David Mathieu had uncovered. The subpoena asked for “any and all account statements 2012-present for Marieh Tanha and any third party including any and all wire transfers and account closure documents.”
The PNC bank records attached to the June 2022 Motion submitted to the Court, show that just months prior to being sued for divorce, via wire transfer, $208,245.37 was transferred out from the PNC account Tanha held jointly with her brother. One month before Mathieu filed, PNC bank statements show another $24,000 was transferred out of the account Tanha held jointly with her brother and deposited into the account held jointly with her mother.
Marieh Tanha submitted a second sworn financial statement to the court in January 2023. On the second sworn financial disclosure, Marieh Tanha listed the addresses of three properties in Sweden. In the second sworn financial statement, Tanha included a “verified declaration” in which she told the judge after she married Mathieu and gave birth to a child, “Sweden rarely crosses my mind.”
The Swedish property and tax records obtained by Swedish lawyer Tom Alhed show that Marieh Tanha was listed as the owner of, and resident at a tenancy apartment in Enskede, Sweden between 2015 and 2021 (after she married Mathieu).
On the second sworn financial disclosure, Tanha now declared the existence of Wells Fargo savings and checking accounts in her name. The second disclosure lists the total in both accounts as $414.94. The second disclosure (like the first) failed to disclose the PNC bank accounts Tanha held jointly with her brother and mother and whose statements showed in a five day period in Nov. 2020 the transfer of $22,000 from the same Wells Fargo account to the PNC account held by Tanha and her brother. Three months later, another $5,000 was transferred from the Wells Fargo account into the PNC account held by Tanha and her brother.
In 2020, Marieh Tanha was reported to the IRS for allegedly failing to disclose $310,934 in income in 2015.
The income was documented by financial records of wire transfers including $138,000 Tanha wired to her brother, and $139,500 from Tanha’s PNC bank account wired to a bank in Sweden c/o her mother, and $34,000 wired to an account in New York. The report to the IRS alleges that Marieh Tanha failed to declare the income in the joint return filed with husband David Mathieu and taxes were not paid on the $310,934.
While both joint filers are liable for underreported income and failure to pay taxes, the IRS offers “Innocent Spouse Relief” to the spouses of individuals who underreport income and fail to pay taxes on the underreported income.
Of the Sept. 3 hearing David Mathieu said: “JP [J.P. Mathieu] was able to clearly state that Marieh [Tanha] should have been held to a higher standard as an ‘officer of the court.'”
Marieh Tanha was twice asked by email to comment in response to the allegations made by J.P. Mathieu at the Sept. 3, 2025 hearing and to comment on the evidence presented to the Court in 2022. Tanha did not respond.
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