A man the U.S. government said owed more than US$500,000 in child support was sentenced to two years in prison in a Michigan court Monday.
Joseph Stroup, who had been on the run for nearly 20 years before his capture in Calgary in February pleaded guilty to one count of failure to pay child support.
He was also ordered to pay $533,624 in restitution and a $100 special assessment charge.
Stroup, known in Alberta as “Joop Cousteau,” was returned to the U.S. after he was arrested in Alberta for what police said was an attempt to scam a Calgary restaurant owner.
The owner of the Bears Den restaurant in Calgary, which closed at the end of January, said Stroup had been a regular at his restaurant for several months.
Scott Winograd said in late November, Stroup ordered a cherry Coke and asked for eight maraschino cherries. Later, he pulled out a pit and said he had “broken some of his dental work.”
“That doesn’t happen,” Winograd said.
Maraschino cherries do not usually have pits.
Winograd said Stroup came in the next day with dental forms that “looked like they were downloaded off the internet.”
Winograd said he Googled the name given on the dental forms, which was listed as Joop Cousteau.
“My spidey sense was up, of course,” he said.
The Calgary restaurateur said he found Stroup’s picture on a U.S. government website that listed “wanted deadbeats.” He learned Joop Costeau was an alias for Joseph Stroup.
“You’d think if you’re on the run you’d come up with John Smith,” he said. “Not Joop Cousteau.”
Stroup, now 64, was ordered to pay child support during a 1989 divorce. Investigators say he fled, despite selling an internet business for more than $2 million.
Winograd said he learned the man who went by Joop Cousteau was also believed to be responsible for scamming people in Bragg Creek and in the Cochrane area.
He invited Stroup back to the restaurant in order to confirm he was the same man and then contacted U.S. authorities.
“It was hard enough to make money in the restaurant business as it is,” he said. “I thought, ‘Well, my margins are so thin I can’t afford to pay this guy his dental work for a sob story like this.’”
Winograd said he received calls from the FBI, U.S. Marshals and the Inspector General’s office within half an hour of his call.
“I’m just glad that he’s not in the area anymore and in a position to screw more people over,” Winograd said.
Stroup’s warrant was originally issued on July 16, 1998.
-With files from Associated Press
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