The Cruelest Con (page 2 of 2)

For Love, Not Money

That helps explain a scam that turned up in the Chicago area last year. Bill and Debra Klima spent seven months scamming thousands of dollars in free rent and other cash payments from adoption agencies to which they promised to give a child. One couple looked at ultrasound images of the baby and even went bowling with the Klimas. The racket came to light only when two people working for separate adoption agencies ran into each other and learned they were both helping the Klimas pay their rent.

Then there are scams involving the actual delivery of real children to adoptive parents. A Hawaiian woman named Lauryn Galindo worked as an adoption "facilitator," connecting would-be parents with children for a fee that usually ran over $10,000 per child. In Hawaii, as in many states, facilitators are not licensed, nor do they need special training. From 1997 to 2001, Galindo arranged some 800 adoptions of supposed Cambodian orphans in the United States -- and got rich along the way, living in a $1.4 million home and driving a Jaguar.

But Galindo's life in the fast lane came to a screeching halt when some of her adoptive parents discovered their children weren't orphans at all. The kids had living parents back in Cambodia. Even more shocking, some had sold their babies for as little as $15. One American parent later said her blood ran cold as she read a newspaper article about a Cambodian mother who'd been coerced into giving up her baby -- and realized it was her newly adopted son, Sam. In November 2004, Galindo was sentenced to 18 months in prison for visa fraud and money laundering.

Cambodia is now closed to U.S. adoptions, but that leaves other hunting grounds for the slimeballs of the adoption trade. A recent 135-count federal indictment against Utah adoption agency Focus on Children alleges it tricked parents in the island nation of Samoa into giving up dozens of children for adoption by Americans. Birth parents who speak poor English reportedly signed away legal rights to their children without realizing what they were doing. (The agency's owners, who allegedly made hundreds of thousands of dollars, have denied the charges.)

Clearly we need more checks and safeguards over the adoption process. The United States has taken more than ten years to implement an international treaty imposing minimum standards on overseas adoptions, including a requirement that adoptions can be made only through officially accredited agencies. Those regulations are supposed to go into effect next year but won't include a number of popular adoption countries, like Vietnam, that haven't signed on to it.

Here at home, 12 states have taken a step that others should emulate: They forbid anyone other than state agencies and licensed businesses from advertising adoption services, whether on websites or in newspapers. Facilitators should also be licensed by the state to ensure they understand adoption laws and procedures. And, according to NCFA's Lee Allen, couples would be wise to hire an adoption attorney, and they should never use the Internet to adopt directly from a mother.

Above all, let's remember how joyous adoption can be, and take heart from people like Bob Temple and his wife, Alette Coble-Temple. This California couple spent a year trying to become parents before falling for the ruse of an Oregon woman who took thousands from them on the false promise they could adopt her unborn daughter.

But the story didn't end there. Another Oregon woman, eight months pregnant, had been thinking about giving up her baby. After watching a TV news story about Bob and Alette's case, she patted her belly and said to her unborn child, "I found your family." The adoption of Kathryn Taylor Temple went through without a hitch. The birth mother had just one request: She wanted her daughter to know that she had given her up out of love, not for money. If only everyone thought that way.

From Reader's Digest - August 2007

 

• Michael Crowley
• • International Issues
• • Parenting Kids

• Unlicensed Truck Operators Killing Drivers
• Thousands of truckers are on the road illegally. And your safety is at stake.
• 
• Immigration Solutions for America
• It's not about coming to America. It's about becoming an American.
• 
• Borderline
• The Minutemen say they're making America safer. Others think they're racists out to stop Latino immigrants. Are they saints or sinners?
• 
• Pension Plan for Cons
• Believe it or not, Congressmen convicted of crimes still get their tax-funded retirement.
• 
• Tax-Cheating Tycoons
• Fat cats are hiding billions from Uncle Sam, leaving the rest of us to pay.
• 
• More Outrage From Michael Crowley
• 

• Be Inspired
• 10 Celebrities Who Give Back
• 7 Amazing Stories, $700,000 to Charity
• Virginia Cervasio: Making It Matter
• PLUS:
• Quiz: What's Your Celebrity Cause IQ?