On behalf of The Marks Law Firm, L.L.C. posted in Child Support on Thursday, January 19, 2012
Here in Missouri, the state government’s Department of Social Services has enforcement offices to help parents who are owed child support to collect.
But in some cases, a parent who owes child support will flee the state to avoid paying the court-ordered support. If the fleeing parent owes more than $5,000, the federal government can step across state borders to enforce the support order.
When a person crosses a state line in order to avoid paying child support, they’ve committed a felony, a Health and Human Services inspector told a media outlet.
“You’re talking about a willful intent to avoid paying for children. For their livelihood, for providing the basics that they so deserve,” the HHS inspector said.
Now the feds are going after some of those parents who have fled and in some cases, have tried to live anonymous lives in other states, cities or even countries.
The federal government has put up a website that names some of the parents, how much they owe and also gives information about their possible whereabouts.
The man currently atop the feds’ list is from Nassau County in New York. He reportedly owes more than $1 million to his three children from two marriages.
He was originally ordered to pay child support in 1996.
He has reportedly used a number of tactics to avoid paying what he owes, including underreporting his income and moving from place to place: first from New York to Florida and then on to Thailand.
He’s believed to be living now in Thailand or the Philippines.
While in Thailand, he was charged with being in possession of a fraudulent British passport, as well as breach of contract.
He and his children would likely have been better off if he had enlisted the aid of an effective family law attorney to help obtain a child support order he believed to be more equitable.
Source: WAVY-TV: “Government goes after deadbeat parents,” Jan. 18, 2012