Deadbeat Dad to Pay $120,000 in Support

Michael Kojima, a Los Angeles businessman whose $500,000 contribution earned him a seat at the head table with President Bush at a lavish fund-raiser last April, pleaded no contest Thursday to failing to pay years of back child support to two ex-wives and four children.

Kojima, 50, dubbed the “most wanted deadbeat dad” by the Los Angeles district attorney’s office, was expected to be released by today from Salt Lake County Jail, after agreeing to pay about $120,000 in past and future child support. He was arrested on a fugitive warrant in Salt Lake City on Saturday after eluding Los Angeles authorities for four months.

“I feel victory!” said Chong Kojima, a Burbank beautician who will receive more than $110,000 for her two daughters, Emily, 13, and Elisha, 12. “I won! I’m so relieved. Now I can plan a future with my children.”

A second wife will receive about $10,000 in back child support.

Under a complicated court-approved agreement negotiated by his attorneys and the Los Angeles County district attorney’s child support division, Kojima will serve no additional jail time if he pays off all past and future child support debts within one year. Failure to pay child support is a misdemeanor punishable by one year in jail.

“Mr. Kojima feels poorly about the situation, that it has come to this,” said his attorney, T. J. Pantaleo, after entering the plea on his behalf in Los Angeles Municipal Court on Wednesday. Asked why Kojima had refused to make the payments earlier, given his clear ability to pay, Pantaleo said: “He plans to explain himself later.”

The comment was the first on Kojima’s behalf since his debts became an embarrassment to the Republican Party during an election year campaign centered around so-called family values. Kojima entered the national spotlight April 28 when his $500,000 proved to be the largest political contribution by an individual on record since campaign reforms were instituted in 1973. The $500,000 has been placed in a court escrow account and GOP fund-raisers have asked a judge to decide whether they can keep the money or must allow it to be distributed to several of Kojima’s prior business creditors.

Though Kojima has been described as an international entrepreneur, his attorney declined Thursday to specify the nature of his business.

“The trade-off was that he doesn’t have to do any more jail time if he pays all his child support in advance,” Los Angeles Deputy Dist. Atty. Thad Young said Thursday. “We came to a place where society’s interests (in jailing him) and the victims’ interest diverged. It will do Chong Kojima more good to have her future support in hand than to put her ex-husband in jail.”

Michael Kojima was given two 365-day jail sentences, but the sentences were suspended on the condition he abides by the agreement. His attorney said Kojima hopes to pay off all child support-related debts shortly.

Kojima was also given three years’ summary probation, but the probation will be lifted as soon as he pays off what he owes under the settlement. He also agreed to pay about $5,000 in costs to the Los Angeles district attorney, and certain penalties and fines.

Young said Wednesday that the agreement should “send a message to deadbeat dads that if you don’t pay, we’ll spent an immense amount of effort to capture you.”

Young estimated that Kojima probably spent $40,000 more in attorneys’ fees, travel expenses, fines, and penalties by eluding payment than he would have had he met his obligation.

Chong Kojima said she will use the money to pay off debts, perhaps move her beauty salon to a better location, and set up college trust funds for her daughters.

What she still worries about, she said, is her daughters, the eldest of whom feels “very sad, very rejected.” She said Emily had not seen her father since she was 7, even though he lived in Brentwood.

A previous ex-wife, Soon Kojima, who owns a small Huntington Park garment factory, will get far less child support because of a technicality.

Because she remarried Kojima for a brief period 13 years after their original marriage, all child support awarded to her two sons during their long previous separation was moot, attorneys said. She was awarded $2,000 in court fees Thursday.

She will also receive $10,115 in child support her ex-husband had failed to pay to the younger of their two sons, Tom, before he turned 18 this year. Her elder son, Jerry, is 19, and will receive no support. Both sons are in college.

“It’s nice,” Soon Kojima said. “But I’m disappointed. I raised my sons for years and the law says they get child support to cover one son for ninth months? I feel so foolish.”