FBI raids Strongsville-based international adoption agency as part of criminal probe

Cleveland ^

[MNDude]

STRONGSVILLE, Ohio -- The Cleveland FBI raided an international adoption agency based in Strongsville Tuesday as part of an ongoing criminal investigation, a spokeswoman confirmed.

The visit by federal agents to European Adoption Consultants came less than two months after the U.S. State Department barred the company from conducting international adoption services for three years.

The State Department's investigation found the company and its providers overseas committed several violations, including soliciting bribes and lying to officials to affect adoption eligibility, according to a report posted on its website. In some instances, the agencies' decisions or actions led to children being harmed, the report says.

FBI spokeswoman Vicki Anderson only confirmed Tuesday that agents visited the company's Alameda Drive headquarters, as well as a house. She said the investigation is ongoing and court filings are sealed.

The State Department says European Adoption Consultants operates adoption programs in Bulgaria, China, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Honduras, India, Panama, Poland, Tanzania, Uganda and Ukraine.

[Lady Heron]

Haiti

[LibertarianLiz]

some grandmother/aunt/uncle/third cousin twice removed should have visitation rights to my child.

Or, had rights to your child, period. I already posted about that occurrence happening a while ago. People regretting that they gave the child up for adoption; and, they get the child back, years after that child had been living with a family --- the only family they had known. I believe one of those birth families, married each other in order to look better to the judge, so they could get that child back. They ended up divorced just a couple of years later; and, that child went from a stable family, to a situation where the parents end up separated and divorced soon after they get the child back.

I think the judges who were giving these children back to their birth parents --- years after they had been living in a home with married parents, and sometimes siblings, were a real spur for foreign adoptions.

[FateAmenableToChange]

So here goes.....I'm uncomfortable with these adoptions from all over the world, when there are children in the US who need homes. It seems hypocritical to be opposed to abortion in the US, then go elsewhere for a child. And yes, I understand the problems that can be involved with the stability of the adoption of a US child.

The biggest reasons people go overseas include (1) smaller, faster, and cheaper bureaucracy; and (2) in the U.S. almost all adoptions are "open" adoptions, meaning that the birth parent still gets to be involved in or in contact with the child in some way. Dealing with adoption agencies in some parts of the country is a nightmare, especially if you have guns in the house. We were told flat out that unless we got rid of our guns, we would have a very difficult time getting approval for adoption. Waiting lists for healthy babies are incredibly long, compared to other countries where the problems are primarily not associated with baby health but rather with finding homes for the extraordinary number of healthy children they have.

And, while Mrs. FATC did succeed in getting preggers shortly before we were going to pull the trigger on going the international adoption route, I was really concerned about the involvement of some American birth mother (and possibly father, but rare) in my family. I'm selfish. I was thinking, if I couldn't replicate my genes, at least I could replicate my upbringing. That's harder if it's an open adoption.

[SetFree]

Adoption or part of the child trafficking global supply chain?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL_fCfRD4ODqfqxgO1xQGqnGjMOVZTMX6k&v=pEvlty5bG9E

Not all trafficking of children is for sex. Spare parts?More trafficking connections:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkQrCYWHugY

[grania]

Thank you for sharing that heartfelt response, from your personal experience. As I said to someone else, in spite of my unease, if I were adopting a child I get it that an overseas adoption might be the only viable choice.

That's why I'm wondering as I type if perhaps what's needed is well run orphanages. If we ask a mom to choose life for her pre-separation child, there should be provisions that the child is well cared for.