Despite Poverty Plea, Deadbeat Dad Jailed He Managed To Pay More Than $100,000 In Credit Card Bills

A state judge did not accept Jeffrey Nichols’ tearful testimony Friday that he is too poor to pay some of the $580,000 he owes in child support and ordered the consultant locked up.

Nichols, a precious metals adviser who has run up the nation’s biggest tab for unpaid child support, was ordered to spend at least 90 days in jail after the judge saw a list of his expenditures, including $77,000 in American Express bills and $41,000 on Saks credit cards.

State Supreme Court Justice Phyllis Gangel-Jacob said the enormous debts were “influential in making me understand how Mr. Nichols could raise the money for things he wishes to raise money for.”

Nichols, 47, has not paid child support since 1990 for his three children by his first wife, Marilyn Nichols-Kane. He was arrested last week in Vermont and charged under the 1992 federal Child Support Recovery Act, two days after his second wife, Suzan Nichols, died of cancer.

Although he and Suzan Nichols together made more than $200,000 last year, Nichols was forced to sell a horse, a camera and a dog that she owned to post $10,000 bail at a federal hearing earlier this week, he testified Friday.

Saying he had nothing to his name except a $5,000 gold watch, clothing and furnishings in the Vermont house that is in his second wife’s name, Nichols pleaded to the judge Friday to let him out so he can work and repay the child support.

But Gangel-Jacob said he will be jailed until he comes up with at least $68,000 - the amount of child support he owed when the judge first found him in contempt of court in 1990. The case will be reviewed again after 90 days, and if he still hasn’t come up with the money, his sentence could be renewed.

“He’s a sophisticated businessman, worldly wise,” Gangel-Jacob said. “I have no doubts that he’s capable of raising that money.” Federal prosecutors say Nichols hid money in his second wife’s name and funneled money to offshore accounts.

With tears in his eyes, Nichols expressed remorse on the witness stand.

“I came back to New York so I could try to make up for what I’ve done. Somehow, I’ve gone astray in the last five or six years,” he said. “I have a great deal of guilt for the emotional harm I’ve caused to my three children. I hope that someday they’ll speak to me again.”

He testified Friday that he stopped paying because his business was not doing well and that he was depressed and taking Prozac.

“He’s not a monster,” said Nichols’ lawyer, Mark Kaplan. “He’s made some terrible mistakes for five years. He wants an opportunity to make it up.”

Reiterating that Nichols has no money, Kaplan said “He’s not coming up with the money … ever.”