Wealthy socialite accused of child support fraud

Milwaukee residents may be interested to learn of a high-profile case involving a billionaire Wall Street financier and a well-known socialite. The couple has a five-year-old daughter. The mother is accused of conspiring with her boyfriend, a partial owner of the Tampa Bay Rays and a former executive at Goldman Sachs, to conceal her income in order to fraudulently obtain child support payments of approximately $50,000 per month from her former partner.

The suit was filed in a U.S. federal district court. Court documents allege that she fraudulently obtained the support payments to “improve upon her already extraordinary life of luxury, privilege and modest fame.” The 43-year-old mother is wealthy in her own right as the daughter of the former chairman of HSBC. She travels the world as an athlete and mountain climber.

The mother is accused of conspiring with her current partner to fraudulently classify millions of dollars in gifts as loans in order to avoid having those amounts considered in a child support determination. Classifying the cash payments as loans also allows the man to avoid paying IRS gift taxes on the money. Neither the mother nor her partner responded to several requests that they comment on the situation.

When a parent lies about income in order to affect the amount of child support paid or received, that may be considered fraud. A family law attorney may be able to help the other parent bring an action to have fraudulent child support awards set aside and to ensure the appropriate amount of support is paid. An attorney may also be able to negotiate a settlement to allow the parties to avoid going back to court.

Source: CNBC, “Millionares Clash Over Socialite’s Child Support Claims,” Peter Lattman, April 26, 2013