Old Buddies

I happened across a news story about someone I once knew from church being sent to federal prison for income tax fraud (after defrauding about 60,000 people out of their money in a pyramid scheme; nice guy). This person was barely an acquaintance. But I started googling, and found a reference or two in some of the stories to people I did know well. That led me to google for a member of their family I had considered a good friend.

Yikes. After he and his wife divorced, in a sloppy agreement in Nevada based on false representations of residence, he took the children at the beginning of what he had determined was his custody year. She was a citizen of another country, and had returned there after the divorce with the children. The incident was eventually ruled a violation of an international child abduction treaty established by the Hague Convention, and within hours of that ruling she was back on a flight to her native country with the children. Aside from the Supreme Court's refusal to hear an appeal, the story disappears.

I usually like looking up old buddies and reading about them. However, my memories of my friendship with about this guy are certainly colored by this incident. What was he thinking? Probably not about the children: their mother was devoted and loving, and I have no doubt she was an excellent mother. This was about him, and his rights. I understand wanting what you think you're entitled to - but not at the expense of your children's stability.

Weird stuff.