KALAMAZOO, Mich. - A man wanted for nearly 20 years for failure to pay child support in Michigan has been arrested in Alberta and returned to the U.S.

Joseph Stroup was known as Joop Cousteau in Alberta.

The government says his overdue child support in Michigan's Van Buren County now exceeds US$500,000.

Stroup appeared in federal court in Chicago last Friday but will be transferred to Michigan. An indictment was filed in 1998 in federal court in Kalamazoo.

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.

Stroup was tripped up by a restaurant owner who found his picture on a U.S. government website that listed “wanted deadbeats.”