- Massachusetts Department of Revenue
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Robert R. Bliss
blissr@dor.state.ma.us
617-626-2369
10 non-custodial parents, whereabouts unknown, owe $733,481 in child support
Department of Revenue Commissioner Navjeet K. Bal today unveiled the 15th edition of the Department of Revenue's Ten Most Wanted poster for failure to pay child support.
"The message in this poster is simple and direct: There is no responsibility greater than providing support for your children," she said. "We want every child in the Commonwealth to succeed, and there is nothing more fundamental to that success than for a child to have the support of both parents."
"The 10 individuals on this new poster, who together owe $733,481 in unpaid child support for 19 children, have willfully evaded their basic parental responsibility, in terms of both financial and emotional support," she said. "They have left an incredible burden for custodial parents to bear, and they have left holes in the hearts of their children."
Each parent on the Ten Most Wanted list has left the Commonwealth and now faces criminal charges carrying sentences of up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $10,000. Arrest warrants have been issued and the names of each entered in the National Criminal Information Center database.
Those who have information on the whereabouts of these 10 individuals should call the Ten Most Wanted Tip-line at 1-888-WANTEDS.
Over the past 17 years, DOR's Child Support Enforcement unit on 14 previous posters has displayed the faces of 122 non-custodial parents whose whereabouts were unknown and who were far behind on their support payments. Of those 122 parents, 104 have been located and about $4.5 million collected in back child support.
The previous poster, issued in September 2007, resulted in the location of seven delinquent parents and the collection of $123,000. Two others on the poster are overseas but outside the jurisdiction of child support authorities.
