Robert
Sand, labeled the nation's worst deadbeat dad, owes the money for the
three kids he fathered with two ex-wives, say prosecutors
By Nancy Dillon AND John Marzulli / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, December 18, 2012, 10:22 PM
Inspector General
Most-wanted deadbeat dad Robert Sand. His mother, Rita, says 'he's not a bad guy.'
The
long arm of the law has reached halfway across the world to nab a Long
Island man who the feds say is the nation’s worst deadbeat dad.
Robert
Sand owes more than $1 million in child support for the three kids he
fathered with two ex-wives, according to prosecutors who have been on
the fugitive’s trail since 2002.
Sand,
50, had been living in Thailand but got into trouble last month when he
traveled to the Philippines without the proper identity papers and was
taken into custody.
The
U.S. doesn’t have an extradition agreement with Thailand, but the
government of the Philippines was more than happy to deport the
deadbeat. Federal marshals took Sand into custody Tuesday after he
arrived on a flight to Los Angeles.
Sand
has left a lot of bad blood behind, but still has his mother in his
corner — even though she concedes he’s a deadbeat like his own father.
“I’m very glad he’s back in the U.S.A.,” Rita Sand, 78, told the Daily News. “He made a terrible mistake leaving the country.
“He’s not a bad guy, he just got caught up in that spider web of whatever the system is,” she said.
Federal
prosecutors indicted Sand in 2009 on two counts of failure to pay child
support. He has been slapped with arrest warrants repeatedly since 1996
for failing to comply with court orders before fleeing to Thailand
where he sold motorcycles for a living.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services termed him the “most wanted deadbeat parent” on its website.
Back
in the 1990s, Sand was earning $500,000 to $600,000 a year running
automobile auctions. He and ex-wife Lisa lived in a mansion in Old
Brookville before the business and their marriage went kaput, his mother
said. The couple’s two daughters are adults now.
Sand’s second wife, who asked not to be identified, said he owes her about $400,000 in support for their daughter.
“I
think he should be locked up for a long time,” the ex-wife said. “He
was a terrible role model, so I think it benefited us not having him
around.”
Rita
Sand said her son would occasionally call her on her birthday or around
Mother’s Day, but he didn’t discuss his situation in detail.
“I
told him to stick it out, that you can’t get blood from a stone, but he
said he didn’t have that kind of money to pay,” Rita Sand said.
“The government wanted to make an example out of him,” she added.
Sand
was arraigned before a magistrate judge in Riverside, Calif., and will
be returned to Long Island Federal Court in the next two weeks.
“He’s
happy to be back and is looking forward to the opportunity to address
these outstanding issues,” said defense lawyer Glenn Obedin.
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