GUATEMALA CITY — Luciany Ball’s adoption file says she was born 14 months ago by Caesarean section to a single mother who gave her up so she could be raised by a loving family in a six-bedroom Indiana farmhouse.

But now some of the documents appear to be fraudulent, part of a slew of irregularities at the agency handling Luciany’s adoption that have left dozens of babies in danger of being seized from their anguished American adoptive parents. The probe also casts a cloud of uncertainty over some 2,900 pending U.S. adoptions.

Prosecutors describe their probe of Casa Quivira — considered Guatemala’s best adoption agency — as their first serious attempt to investigate a $100 million industry that has made tiny Guatemala second only to China in sending orphaned infants to the United States.

The system has delivered 29,400 Guatemalan children into U.S. homes since 1990.

After a monthslong investigation that began with the seizure of 46 babies from Casa Quivira last August, prosecutors contend they found fraud cloaking the true identities of at least nine children and say half their birth mothers couldn’t be found at all.

The fraud points to much deeper problems with the flawed adoption system Guatemala replaced in January.

After intense lobbying by U.S. parents, most of the 2,900 pending U.S. adoptions will likely go forward, partly because Guatemala lacks the resources to fully investigate them. Parents of the Casa Quivira babies, however, are stuck in the very nightmare they tried to avoid by spending at least $30,000 per child for hassle-free adoptions.

Prosecutors say the problems at Casa Quivira include illegal payments to at least one birth mother, stolen identities — including that of a child stillborn 22 years ago — and a mentally ill birth mother who was incapable of giving consent.

After the August raid, Casa Quivira’s notary and attorney were arrested on charges of illegally processing paperwork. A Guatemalan judge said he would announce today whether to pursue a trial against them. Prosecutors also have built a case against the owner, Clifford Phillips of Deland, Fla.

Phillips, who owns the agency with his Guatemalan wife, Sandra Gonzalez, an attorney, has denied any responsibility for fraud. The couple have handled hundreds of adoptions since the agency opened in 1996, and outside adoption experts said their record was spotless.

Thirty-six of the babies seized in the August raid are still being held at Casa Quivira. Ten more, including Luciany, are now in the U.S. But their fate is uncertain.

Custody disputes with Guatemala for babies already in the United States would eventually land before a judge in the adoptive family’s hometown, according to the U.S. Embassy. But if document fraud is discovered for babies still in Guatemala, their cases will have to start all over again.

Guatemala’s new adoption law, which took effect Jan. 1, was enacted to comply with an international treaty to prevent human trafficking.

By Juan Carlos Llorca, The Associated Press

Source: coprinus.blogspot.com