Divorce can be an ugly, destructive life event for many estranged couples. When you see no other options but to divorce and you have children, often you have child support. It makes sense, the cost of raising a child doesn’t change because the parents have irreconcilable differences.
There are parents who feel child support is unfair. Unless a parent legally relinquishes their rights, both parents are responsible for the child’s (or children’s) welfare.
Rather than sever his legal rights to his daughter, the father in this true crime went to great lengths to avoid paying child support.
He returned to the state where he was born, stole doctor credentials, hacked into the state website to access the death registries. Then he issued a death certificate for himself using an electronic signature for the ‘attending physician.’ Dead people don’t have to pay child support, right?!
He may have gotten away with his crime, but he continued hacking into businesses to access confidential information on people and then sold the information on the dark web.
Before his jury trial began, the 38-year-old father accepted a plea agreement, pleading guilty to computer fraud and aggravated identity theft. A federal judge sentenced him to over six years in prison. The judge also ordered him to pay almost $200,000 in total to government and corporations for damages and for back child support.
A United States Attorney associated with the case said,
“This scheme was a cynical and destructive effort, based in part on the inexcusable goal of avoiding his child support obligations.”
Source: United States District Court, United States Department of Justice, NBC News, Law and Crime
All data and information provided is for information and research purposes only and not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, or individual. Criminal cases may have been appealed or verdicts overturned since I researched the case. All information is provided on an as-is basis.
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