[This article from 2010 highlights the futility of money when it comes to high profile cases where bribery via campaign contributions is more difficult.]
What do you call it when you fake paternity test results, lie in court, then use the justice system to defraud a 93 year old man (albeit a billionaire) out of millions? Right, fraud. Perjury. Felony theft. But not in family court. Here we call that: The best interests of the child!
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/kerkorian-to-pay-1025-million-in-child-support/1844904/
While we may have little pity for billionaires who sit on the sidelines and let the family law racket operate with impunity, fraud is fraud and should be punished accordingly, not rewarded. In this case:
Billionaire Kirk Kerkorian agreed Friday to pay more than $10 million in back child support plus $100,000 a month for a child his ex-wife has admitted is not his biological daughter.
Lisa Bonder Kerkorian, who was married briefly to the casino mogul after a long relationship, acknowledged during a child support battle that she had faked a DNA paternity test by using saliva she obtained from Kerkorian’s adult daughter. She said the biological father actually was Hollywood movie producer Stephen Bing.The settlement, which provides $100,000 a month until Kira turns 19 or until she graduates from high school, no longer is a full-time student or no longer is living with her mother full-time. After that, the settlement says, the child support will be reduced to $50,000 a month.
The agreement also provides for Kerkorian to pay expenses including school costs, equestrian expense, clothing, housing, travel, hobbies, automobile, food, beauty treatments, tutoring, entertainment, parties and pets.
Now this case gets even stranger. Not only did she not go to jail, but the private investigators who uncovered the fraud (utilizing illegal [for them] wiretapping) ended up in jail for wiretapping. Despite having uncovered a crime. Why were the police not doing this? In addition, Lisa Kerkorian was already collecting child support from the actual father since 2002.
What we see time and time again is that celebrities such as Brad Pitt, Alec Baldwin, and countless others are not immune to the racketeering that is happening throughout the country. In certain jurisdictions no amount of money will buy your way out. In this case, the 100,000 plus all expenses in the above paragraph will likely end up going through the state’s Child Support Collection Agency–which will then see 66% matching from the federal government (AKA your tax dollars) on the award ($10.25 million). That means they are likely going to get $6,600,000 million just for allowing this case to go forward. How is the state supposed to be impartial when they have the same to gain as the guilty party?
Incentive is everything. We cannot expect the direction to change while the carrot of Title IV-D continues to direct the courts.