ADOPTION FRAUD: A CRUEL TWIST OF A FAMILY’S HOPE

ADOPTION FRAUD:
A CRUEL TWIST OF A FAMILY’S HOPE

Tim and Nancy* went to a party hosted by Reaching Arms International, an adoption agency. Reaching Arms indicated that it specialized in placing Eastern European children for adoption. The next year, the couple got news that a four-month-old girl had been found. Because Eastern European orphans are at high-risk for developmental challenges, the couple asked the University of Minnesota's International Adoption Clinic to review their prospective daughter's case file. A week later, Reaching Arms told the family that the clinic had misdiagnosed other orphans and could not be trusted. The couple stood their ground, and a checkup with an outside doctor and photographs proved the girl to be healthy. But the family then got a shock: they had originally been told the fees for the European part of the process would be $8,000, but now the agency said the prospective parents would have to pay as much as $20,000. By that point, the parents had already decorated their daughter’s room, purchased her clothes, and showed her picture to the family. So they felt compelled to pay the new fees.

Sally and Bill already had two children, but they wanted to open their hearts to another child. After paying more than $15,000 to Reaching Arms, the couple said that instead of a baby, they got threats and pressure from the Reaching Arms representative. At one point a company representative told them the devil had a hold on them and was the reason they could not have their own children. Sally, a registered nurse, had two biological children and was pregnant at the time.

Michael and Marybeth paid their life savings of $15,750 to Reaching Arms. When they were asked to come up with more than the $15,750 they had already paid, their relatives held a fundraiser and sent in an additional $700. Reach Arms claimed not to have received the money, even though the family reported having the canceled checks. The family later discovered that the agency had also used a credit card number from a previous payment to make an unauthorized transaction.

Suzanna and Alan said that while attempting to adopt a Guatemalan girl, they received a letter from the agency stating that Reaching Arms was on the "brink" of financial disaster. Suzanna was told that the agency was "downsizing" and had listed its building for sale. Soon after, the price of their adoption was increased to $19,000. The couple completed the adoption but still, at the time of the lawsuit, had not received an amended birth certificate needed for their daughter's citizenship.

All in all, there were numerous other families who were affected by the adoption agency’s practices.

Less than one month into her first term, Attorney General Lori Swanson filed a legal action in court to demand that Reaching Arms undergo an audit. "We've never seen a case like this in Minnesota involving this level of complaints against an adoption agency," Swanson said, adding that she was "very concerned" not only about the money the couples had lost, but the pressures to which they had been subjected. "This is already a very emotional process," she said. "You don't want it exploited."

The investigation took seven months as new families kept calling to tell their stories. Investigators ultimately interviewed more than 30 families. Reaching Arms was eventually closed and The Children's Home Society took over its unfinished cases.

In this case, the adoption agency was licensed by the Minnesota Department of Human Services. Yet, the Department seemed unable to expeditiously process the complaints from families and take remedial action. The lesson in this case is that the Attorney General’s Office can extend its reach to include audits of regulated companies where the primary regulatory agency is hesitant to do so. Once Swanson filed the lawsuit, the Human Services Department was prodded into taking action.

*All names in this article are changed to protect the privacy of the people involved.

References:

Melo, Frederick, “Families: We Got runaround, not babies,” Pioneer Press, February 1, 2007, p. 1A
Lopez, Patricia and Smith, Dane, “Couples allege adoption agency duped them,” Star Tribune, February 1, 2007, page 1A.
“The Adoption Scam,” CitiPages, July 9, 2007, http://www.citypages.com/news/the-adoption-scam-6687505