Wills & Trusts News

Massachusetts Man Tried And Found Guilty Of Willfully Failing To Pay Child Support

Jamie Edelkind, age 43, from Massachusetts was found guilty by a federal jury last week of willful nonpayment of child support, announced United States Attorney Donald W. Washington. The jury deliberated for three and a half hours before returning a guilty verdict.

The trial, which began Monday before United States District Judge Rebecca Doherty, is the result of investigations which began in 2002 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General. The Superior Court of Cobb County, state of Georgia, ordered Edelkind to pay child support in the amount of $1,400 per month commencing December 1, 1998. The Georgia state child support order was modified in July 2003 by Louisiana’s 15th Judicial District Court Judge David Blanchet after the defendant did not comply with the Georgia order. Judge Blanchet ordered the defendant to pay the child support arrearage and set the child support at $1,537.09 per month. After the July 2003 hearing, Edelkind was indicted in Atlanta, Georgia for federal bank fraud charges to which he pleaded guilty. However, Edelkind failed to pay any of his child support obligation and issued fake certified checks and fake cashier’s checks in an effort to act as if he was paying child support.

Records indicate that Edelkind filed bankruptcy in 1999, but in 2000 purchased a seaside mansion that once was the summer home of Joseph Kennedy and President John F. Kennedy. Evidence showed that he and his new family lived extravagantly.

Charges were again filed against Edelkind for bank fraud in 2004 and 2005. He has been sentenced to serve 5 years in federal prison and ordered to pay full restitution of $3,300,000 to the banks involved in Massachusetts.
Edelkind currently owes $87,221.34 in unpaid child support.

During trial, Edelkind claimed he had no resources and no ability to pay child support despite hiring computer programmers, renovating the Kennedy mansion, hiring aupairs, and spending thousands of dollars on clothes, lunches and shopping sprees.

Willful nonpayment of child support is criminalized by federal statute 18 U.S.C. § 228. This statute allows for federal prosecution of child support cases when the person ordered to pay child support has failed to do so for a period longer than two years or owes more than $10,000 in back child support. Additionally, for federal jurisdiction, the child must reside in a state different than that of the person owing child support.

Sentencing will be scheduled for a later date to be determined by the court. Edelkind faces up to 2 years federal imprisonment to run concurrently with his other federal convictions.

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