Socialite Fights Hedge Fund Millionaire Over $50,000/Month Child Support

A recent New York Times article discussed a scandalous affair involving hedge fund millionaires, a love child and a potential gold-digging socialite. No, the article was not a review for the latest episode of The Young and The Restless, it’s about a salacious custody battle taking place in New York.

The story begins in Aspen, Colorado, a great place for such a scandalous tale to start. It was there that Warren Lichtenstein, a Wall Street moneyman, met Annabelle Bond, a British socialite and famed mountain climber who once conquered Mt. Everest. The two began a fast and furious relationship and, five years ago, had a child together. Though they briefly were engaged, they never got married and broke up soon after their daughter was born.

Ms. Bond, not one to nurse a breakup for long, soon found herself in Aspen meeting yet another Wall Street financier, this time, Andrew Cader, a former Goldman Sachs executive and owner of the Tampa Bay Rays. The two began a new relationship right as Ms. Bond and Mr. Lichtenstein started a courtroom fight over child support for their daughter.

Ms. Bond decided to leave America and return to Hong Kong, where she was a citizen, and filed suit there against Mr. Lichtenstein. After a prolonged child support fight, the Hong Kong court ordered Mr. Lichtenstein to pay Ms. Bond $41,800 per month in child support as well additional money for school expenses, tutoring, medical bills and travel. Experts say the child support award was one of the largest ever issued by a Hong Kong judge.

While the original child support dispute is over and done, Mr. Lichtenstein recently caught wind of potential financial fraud perpetrated by Ms. Bond, something that he believes should justify a sharp reduction in the amount he pays in child support. According to Mr. Lichtenstein, Ms. Bond left him and immediately took up with Mr. Cader. Mr. Lichtenstein claims that Cader has conspired with Bond to hide her true financial condition and life of privilege by disguising monetary gifts as loans.

For example, Mr. Lichtenstein recently learned that Ms. Bond and their daughter have moved into a home in an upscale area of Hong Kong that is being rented by Mr. Cader for $26,000 per month. However, Mr. Cader has structured this lease as a loan rather than a gift. Additionally, Cader supposedly has given Ms. Bond more than $3.5 million in cash that has also been designated as a loan. Mr. Lichtenstein argues that this money represents gifts to a lover and not a loan and that the two have conspired to lie about Ms. Bond’s financial situation to extract more money in child support and also to avoid Mr. Cader having to pay gift taxes on the money.

The case is currently before the Federal District Court in Manhattan who will now have the pleasure of unraveling this web of intrigue.

If you find yourself facing the prospect of complicated divorce and have questions about your rights and options, contact an experienced Ohio family law attorney who can help guide you through the difficult process. Count on the expertise of Twinsburg family law attorney Carol L. Stephan.

Source: “Millionaires Clash Over Socialite’s Child Support Claims,” published at NYTimes.com.

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A recent article about a woman from Texas who was sentenced for failing to pay her child support obligations has sparked a debate about whether incarcerating people who have gotten behind on bills makes sense.

The woman, Cheryl Walton, was charged with two counts of felony non-support of her children. After pleading guilty, a judge sentenced Walton to a suspended five-year term. The woman is also required to immediately pay $5,000 toward her back child support as well as continuing to pay an additional $270 per month during her five year sentence on top of her normal child support obligations to ensure her arrearage is paid in full.

Stories of parents skipping out on the obligations to the children they should be caring for are certainly irritating. On the one hand, deadbeat parents should be punished and forced to pay for the children they created, but on the other hand, creating a modern day debtors prison is not something states should so happily embrace.

It’s been more than two centuries since a person was allowed to be thrown into jail for being behind on debt payments, but that has not stopped states across the country from embracing the idea that parents who owe child support money ought to be locked up. Ohio has a similar law which allows prosecutors to charge a parent who is in arrears with a criminal offense and ultimately serve jail time.

Ohio law makes the situation dependent on the amount of child support owed, but the charge that a parent could face for being behind ranges from a misdemeanor to a felony. While this may seem exceedingly harsh, it is thankfully only a last resort. Before jail time, a parent can have his or her license suspended, have hunting and fishing licenses revoked, lose their professional licenses (doctors, lawyers, accountants, etc.) and even have tax returns confiscated by state authorities.

In cases where such actions are not enough or where the amount owed is too great, courts in Ohio have the power to charge parents with criminal actions. Not only does this power extend to those people living within the state, but courts can even request that a parent be extradited from another state to be brought before an Ohio court to face charges.

This kind of power has prompted concern by some who worry about the effectiveness of such a strict system of enforcement. While jailing non-paying parents — the vast majority of them men — does lead to payment in many cases, critics say that it unfairly penalizes poor and unemployed parents who have no ability to pay, even though federal law makes clear that a person must have “willfully” violated a court order before being incarcerated. How willful is it when you have no job and not financial resources?

If you find yourself facing the prospect of complicated divorce and have questions about your rights and options, contact an experienced Ohio family law attorney who can help guide you through the difficult process. Count on the expertise of Twinsburg family law attorney Carol L. Stephan.

Source: “Unable to pay child support, poor parents land behind bars,” by Mike Bunker, published at NBCNews.com.

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