FBI Investigates Internet Adoption Agency
Jan. 19, 2001 -- The FBI is looking into whether the U.S. adoption firm that twice-traded baby twins on the Internet may have committed fraud in its dealings with would-be adoptive parents, FBI sources say.
No official charges have been filed. But according to bureau sources, the FBI has received multiple complaints from people who say they paid money or entered into agreements to adopt children through the "A Caring Heart" Internet adoption firm, only to have the plans fall through.
Many of the complaints originate near Salt Lake City, Utah, and the FBI's Salt Lake City office is leading the investigation.
A Caring Heart told The Associated Press it is legitimate.
"There was no selling, there was no trading, there was noillegal trafficking," said Jennifer Coburn, spokeswoman for TinaJohnson, who operates A Caring Heart.
"Ms. Johnson is a legitimate adoption facilitator who providesa service for adoptive parents wishing to locate children who arebeing placed for adoption," Coburn said.
Babies in Custody
Belinda and Kimberley, the 6-month-old twins at the center of the most public of the adoption disputes, were taken into the care of Welsh authorities Flintshire County on Thursday. Officials said they were acting on an emergency protection order.
The children were taken from British couple, Alan and Judith Kilshaw, who say they adopted the twins from A Caring Heart. However, California couple, Richard and Vickie Allen, also claim to have paid the same firm to adopt the twin girls and say they will go to court to get them back.
The release of the children to Alan Kilshaw, 45, a lawyer, and his wife, Judith, 47, was authorized by an Arkansas court. It is not clear whether the Allens were ever issued papers approving the adoption in any state.
The case has attracted widespread attention partly because of the competing claims on the twins, and also because of curiosity about the online adoption process.
Investigations, Court Hearings
The Los Angeles office of the FBI is looking into the Allen's complaints over the matter, FBI sources said.
In addition, local Welsh authorities, who have demanded copies of adoption papers, have said they plan a full investigation of the case. Private adoption is illegal in Britain.
Alan Kilshaw said today there will be a court hearing Tuesday in Birmingham, England. Philip McGreevy, chief executive of Flintshire County, said a judge would hear the casebefore the emergency custody order expires on Jan. 26.
"The twins are safe and well in the council's care," he saidin a statement, adding that taking the girls into custody was "acareful, considered and proportionate response.
"Further legal steps are now in hand which will place all ofthe issues, including the complex legal, practical andinternational dimensions, before the High Court," the statementadded.
Biological Mom Wants Babies, Too
The twins' biological mother, 28-year-old Tranda Wecker, added a new dimension to the controversy this week when she said she wanted the twins back.
Wecker was quoted by London's The Sun tabloid as saying she changed her mind when she saw the twins on television.
"When I saw them on TV with the Kilshaws I thought, 'Oh my God — they're my babies. What have I done?'," she told the Sun from St. Louis, where she lives.
Payments, and Competing Claims
Wecker's change of heart will not necessarily work in favor of the Allens, who paid a $6,000 fee to the Internet adoption brokerage for the children. Wecker said she didnot want the baby girls given to the Allens.
The Sun also reported that it had found another woman, U.S. housewife Amy White, who had agreed to pay the same adoption broker, $8,500 for the twins but failed to find the money quickly enough.
The children were given to the Kilshaws in California in December by Wecker. They had paid A Caring Heart $12,000 to adopt the twins.
They say they were unaware the Internet firm had already sold Wecker's twins to the Allens, who had raised them for two months before Wecker took them back.
The switch came when Wecker told the Allens she wanted two days to say farewell to her twins — and then handed them to the Kilshaws in a San Diego hotel.
The British couple, pursued by the Allens, raced across the United States to Arkansas, where adoption laws are more lax to complete the process. They then flew back to Wales with the girls.
At the time of the seizure, the Kilshaws had been staying with the twins at a hotel near their home. The family's move to the hotel was apparently prompted by the media furor surrounding their case, and the media stakeout at their home in North Wales.
ABCNEWS’ London bureau, ABCNEWS' Pierre Thomas, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.