I guess I missed this thread, and felt the need to post, sorry it was a little late. The same thing happened to my mother. She had sole custody of me for 15 years before I got sent to HLA. My dad had never consitently been in my life, and only showed up every few months to use me to dick with my mother in court (20 years after their divorce, they are still in court to this day). My father got the money (LOTS OF MONEY), and my mother got the kids.
At HLA, they obviously found out who the financial backer of this escapade was (my father), and worked as hard as they could to have him get custody through a nasty court process. The had to keep the cash cow in line, and did it by even refusing to speak to my mother anymore when it came to updates about me. (That once weekly phone call their supposed to get? They just STOPPED it). She didn't have any money, so all the control went to my father, even though HE'S NEVER BEEN A FATHER.
It does happen, and I'm living proof. The ONLY reason I had to go to HLA in the first place after my two OTHER programs was because the courts didn't feel it safe to release me to EITHER parents custody because of the litigation process going on. HLA preyed on that, and we're still paying for the consequences today.
But hey, they got paid, right?