Poor Dr. Rafik M. Hanna. He can’t pay his child support. He has no problem renting cars. He has rented a Lexus, a Porche, a Jaguar, and a Audi. He has taken his girl friend on expensive shopping trips. He has vacationed on Catalina Island, Victoria Island and the Sun River in Oregon. He goes to the symphony and professional basketball games. He plays golf at championship courses.

But he can’t pay his child support. He moved his bank account to Canada in order to try to put it beyond the power of the United States courts. It is true that his license to practice medicine has been withdrawn due to his failure to pay child support but his family gives him gifts including $500,000 in a four year period.

After he moved from Illinois to Vancouver, Washington he was charged with violating the Federal Deadbeat Parents Punishment Act of 1998 ¹and sentenced to two years in prison. On appeal he claimed that he had insufficient income and that gifts were not included as his income. He also claimed that the gifts came with strings preventing him from using them for child support. ² You’ve got to give it to him he has a creative lawyer who probably knows nothing about family law. It is true that the Federal tax laws treat gifts different from earned income but ability to pay child support is based upon the parent’s ability to pay the child support using any money or assets possessed by the parent. Furthermore any strings placed upon the gifts apparently allowed Hanna to rent expensive cars and buy expensive gifts, he can use the money to pay child support. ³

So while no one likes to see anyone go to prison, we will not shed many tears over Dr. Hanna. After all when he was questioned by Special Agent Robin Bonn of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services why he did not pay his child support he said: “I am not going to use my life lines to pay child support. I’m using them to pay myself.”