Man Who Ducked $1 Million In Child Support Payments Gets Prison Time: U.S. Attorney

CHICAGO — A man who ducked an estimated $1 million in child support payments has been sentenced to two years in federal prison—and must cough up what he owes, a federal judge ordered last week.

Evan Musikantow, 60, of Arizona, was convicted in 2025 of failing to pay child support to his ex-wife for their two children, who were raised in the Chicago area.

Musikantow failed to pay the mandated support from 2008 through at least 2017, court records show, landing him a spot on the since-defunct State of Illinois' public "Deadbeats Most Wanted List."

Spanning from 2009 through 2017, Musikantow paid just slightly more than $3,000 for the support of his two children—most of which was intercepted from his state tax refunds, the U.S. Attorney's office said.

Between amount owed and interest accrued, the total comes to over $1,000,000. Musikantow's refusal to pay is a felony under under the Deadbeat Parents Punishment Act of 1998, and he was indicted by a federal grand jury in the Northern District of Illinois in August 2018.

According to court documents from the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services records admitted at trial, Musikantow paid a total of slightly more than $500 in child support, or about $35 per child per year, from July 2009 through July 2017.

'Complete lack of acceptance of personal responsibility'

Musikantow and his ex-wife were married in 1995, had two children together and divorced in 2006. By the time the divorce was final, he had moved to Arizona, where he now lives with his new spouse and their children.

Despite multiple attempts by the courts and state agencies, Musikantow "failed to pay any child support for months at a time and at times for entire years. And defendant ignored and otherwise dodged his duty to support his children despite the longstanding efforts of the Circuit Court of Cook County, the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, and the mother of the two children to get defendant to provide support."

The Circuit Court of Cook County ordered him to pay child support "multiple times" since September 2006.

"Nonetheless, defendant has chosen over and over again to expend his assets, time, education, and business experience on other endeavors," prosecutors said in the sentencing document.

While he was refusing to pay, they say he continued to "chase a lavish lifestyle" including spending $5,000 a month in rent for a Scottsdale home in 2014. In that same year, Musikantow paid no child support, yet gambled more than $11,000 at Talking Stick Resort, winning about $3,200. None of that, prosecutors said, went toward child support payments.

Previously in July 2009, he also petitioned for his child support to be lowered, and the court agreed, dropping it to $1,300 per month. Musikantow "continued his contemptuous conduct," prosecutors said, and made no payments for nearly two years, when he paid $200 in 2011.

He "essentially abandoned" providing financial support for his children from 2009 through 2017, though bank records show he was a signatory on more than 30 bank accounts into which more than $2,600,000 in deposits were made during that time.

"Likely the most remarkable aspect about defendant Musikantow is his complete lack of acceptance of personal responsibility for his willful failure to pay any
significant child support for his children in Illinois," prosecutors said. "Even when faced with the overwhelming evidence at trial of his guilt, defendant’s reported reaction was to tell the Sun-Times that the government’s case against him was 'outrageously unfair.'"

The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services estimates that as of Sept. 30, 2025, he owed $504,451.16 in child support principal and an additional $588,110.62 in interest for an overall total of $1,092,561.81, according to court documents.

"Despite overwhelming evidence of his guilt, defendant has neither accepted responsibility for his offense nor shown any remorse," the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

“Defendant ignored and otherwise dodged his duty to support his children despite the longstanding efforts of the Circuit Court of Cook County, the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, and the mother of the two children to get defendant to provide support,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys Edward G. Kohler and Edward A. Liva, Jr. argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum. “Defendant committed this continuing offense over a period of many years, apparently motivated to abandon his children’s financial support to chase his own lavish lifestyle.”

Musikantow's father, Allen Musikantow, co-founded Apple American Group, which owned and operated about 480 Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar restaurants in 23 states, as reported by the Chicago Sun-Times. Musikantow sued his father for $20 million in 2018, claiming his father had shorted him money owed in his partnership. That suit was dismissed.

Musikantow also has prior felony convictions for identity theft and aggravated DUI, in addition to multiple misdemeanor convictions for such offenses as possession of drug paraphernalia and extreme DUI.