Tag Archives: adoptions

Adoption Agency Manager Pleads Guilty in Uganda and Poland Adoption Procurement Schemes

November 23, 2021 By in Consular Work, Court Cases, Federal Agencies, Investigations, State Department Tags: , , , , , , , ,

 

Via USDOJ:
Texas Woman Pleads Guilty to Schemes to Procure Adoptions from Uganda and Poland through Bribery and Fraud

A Texas woman who was a program manager at an Ohio-based international adoption agency pleaded guilty today in the Northern District of Ohio to schemes to procure adoptions of Ugandan and Polish children by bribing Ugandan officials and defrauding U.S. authorities.

According to court documents, Debra Parris, 69, of Lake Dallas, engaged in a scheme with others to bribe Ugandan officials to procure adoptions of Ugandan children by families in the United States. These bribes included payments to (a) probation officers intended to ensure favorable probation reports recommending that a particular child be placed into an orphanage; (b) court registrars to influence the assignment of particular cases to “adoption-friendly” judges; and (c) High Court judges to issue favorable guardianship orders for the adoption agency’s clients. In her plea agreement, Parris also admitted that she continued to direct the adoption agency’s clients to work with her alleged co-conspirator Dorah Mirembe, after knowing that Mirembe caused clients of the adoption agency to provide false information to the U.S. State Department for the purpose of misleading it in its adjudication of visa applications.

According to court documents, in a second scheme, after alleged co-conspirator Margaret Cole, the adoption agency’s Executive Director, learned that clients of the adoption agency determined they could not care for one of the two Polish children they were set to adopt, Parris and her co-conspirator took steps to transfer the Polish child to Parris’s relatives, who were not eligible for intercountry adoption. In her plea agreement, Parris also admitted that after the child was injured and hospitalized, Parris agreed with her co-conspirator to conceal their improper conduct from the U.S. State Department in an attempt to continue profiting from these adoptions.

Parris pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and commit visa fraud in connection with the Uganda scheme, and conspiracy to defraud the United States in connection with the Poland scheme. She is scheduled to be sentenced on March 9, 2022. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Trial against Cole is scheduled to commence on Feb. 7, 2022. Mirembe remains at large.

Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Bridget M. Brennan for the Northern District of Ohio; and Acting Assistant Director Jay Greenberg of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division made the announcement.

If you believe you are a victim of this offense, please visit https://www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/victim-witness-program or call (888) 549-3945.

The FBI’s Cleveland Field Office is investigating the case.

Trial Attorneys Jason Manning and Alexander Kramer of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Chelsea Rice of the Northern District of Ohio are prosecuting the case. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs assisted in the investigation.

The Fraud Section has lead responsibility for investigating and prosecuting all FCPA matters. Additional information about the Justice Department’s FCPA enforcement efforts can be found at www.justice.gov/criminal/fraud/fcpa.

An indictment is merely an allegation, and Cole and Mirembe are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

U.S. Embassy Hanoi Starts Vietnam Adoption Processing Through the Special Adoption Program

October 6, 2014 By in Americans Abroad, Consular Work, Foreign Service, FSOs Tags: , , , , , , ,

— Domani Spero
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Last month, the the United States started processing the  Hague Convention adoptions from Vietnam through the Special Adoption Program. Two U.S. adoption service providers – Dillon International and Holt International Children’s Services, were selected and granted by the Government of Vietnam licenses to operate intercountry adoption program for children with special needs, children aged five and older, and children in biological sibling groups (Special Adoption Program).  According to Embassy Hanoi, the ceremony held on September 16, 2014 also marks the effective date for the United States to start processing Hague Convention adoptions from Vietnam through the Special Adoption Program. Below is an excerpt from the announcement:

Inter-country adoption between the United States and Vietnam has been inactive since 2008. Since that time, Vietnam has strengthened its commitment to reforming its adoption system. The Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-Operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (Convention) entered into force for Vietnam on February 1, 2012. The Government of Vietnam has taken a number of steps to improve its implementation of the Convention, particularly in adoptions of children with special needs and for older children and biological sibling groups. A new adoption law, implementing decree, and related circulars have been passed and are being implemented. The United States welcomes Vietnam’s efforts to enhance its child welfare and intercountry adoption system and has now determined that, through the Special Adoption Program, it will be able to process Convention adoptions from Vietnam. However, the United States will not process Convention adoptions from Vietnam that fall outside the parameters of the Special Adoption Program. We will continue to monitor the Vietnamese child welfare program to determine if the intercountry adoption program can be expanded.

Below is Tiffany Murphy, the Chief of the Consular Section of the U.S Embassy in Hanoi announcing the content of the adoption program between the two countries. Via Vietnam International Television VTV4

Click here for the adoption information from DHS/USCIS.

 

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