Our agency was approached by a woman who had given up hope of getting justice from her ex-husband. After the divorce he did everything he could to avoid paying child support: he claimed he earned too little and brought the bailiffs a certificate showing a tiny salary. The woman was sure he was hiding his real income.
The Certificate and the Reality
We started with the information the ex-husband had submitted in court: a modest position, a low salary. The detectives immediately suspected that the papers did not reflect reality and put his movements under surveillance. It turned out that he did not go to the workplace named in the certificate. In fact he worked at a private company as a middle manager — and clearly earned far more than he claimed.
Our Person in the Company
To obtain irrefutable evidence, one of our staff got a job at the same company. From the inside he confirmed that the ex-husband did work there, but off the books, and was paid “in an envelope”. The documents he had shown the court and the bailiffs turned out to be fictitious.
A fake certificate fooled the court, but it did not survive a professional check.
The Court’s Decision
We handed all the evidence we had gathered to our client, and she presented it in court. The decision was revised: the ex-husband was ordered to pay all the child support arrears that had built up over a long time. He had to admit the deception, and the children received what they are entitled to by law.
Why It Matters for the Children
Under Russian law, the amount of child support depends on earnings: a quarter of income for one child, a third for two, and half for three or more. So every hidden ruble of salary is money the children do not receive. A certificate showing a tiny salary turns child support into a token sum, while the real income stays in the envelope.
Hidden Income
Fake certificates, unregistered work, cash in an envelope — these are common ways of trying to escape obligations to one’s children. Proving it on your own is hard: you need facts that will stand up in court. If you are sure your ex-spouse earns more than he shows, start by gathering such facts — with them, both the bailiffs and the court will treat the case differently.