On May 27, 2009, a federal jury in Tampa found a Pasco County man guilty of willfully refusing to pay child support. Since 2000, the man had failed to make a single voluntary payment and had a child support arrearage of over $110,000. The man faces up to two years in federal prison.
This prosecution was based on The Child Support Recovery Act of 1992 (CSRA), which makes it a Federal crime to willfully fail to pay support for a child living in another state if the arrearages exceed $5,000 or if the arrearages are unpaid for longer than one year.
Typically, the U. S. Attorney's office will be very selective about what cases they prosecute. The tend to favor the prosecution of cases with the following circumstances present: (1) where there is a pattern of moving from state to state to avoid payment; (2) where there is a pattern of fraud or such as the use of a false name or Social Security number, (3) where there is failure to make support payments after being held in contempt of court; and (4) where failure to make support payments is connected to some other Federal offense such as bankruptcy fraud.
Typically, the U. S. Attorney's office will be very selective about what cases they prosecute. The tend to favor the prosecution of cases with the following circumstances present: (1) where there is a pattern of moving from state to state to avoid payment; (2) where there is a pattern of fraud or such as the use of a false name or Social Security number, (3) where there is failure to make support payments after being held in contempt of court; and (4) where failure to make support payments is connected to some other Federal offense such as bankruptcy fraud.
