FTIA-ROTIA-AAA and the Axis of Evil

On September 27, 2006, Families Thru International Adoption potentate Keith Wallace repeatedly testified, under oath, before the United States Congress that he "didn't have much information" about Masha Allen's adoption even though he had been "invited here today to provide the committee with all the information I have about the adoption of Mr. Mancuso."


A close comparison of Wallace's spoken and written testimony, however, reveals that he left out a lot of unqualified praise for Jeannene Smith. Here's what Wallace says in his written testimony:

FTIA's working relationship with Ms. Smith was interesting, to say the least. Ms. Smith is very industrious and very intelligent. It was partially through her urging that FTIA developed some of its foreign adoption programs. Even if I had done research in starting a new program, Ms. Smith would always have additional and helpful information. I even traveled with Ms. Smith several times when starting a new program.


I was contacted by Ms. Smith in the second half of 1996. Ms. Smith asked if she could work with FTIA. I contracted with Ms. Smith to work as a northeast regional coordinator for FTIA.


. . .


During this period, I even wrote a letter of recommendation to the New Jersey licensing authority on her behalf. I had concluded that she could not work for FTIA, but I knew she was smart so I thought maybe she can run her own agency.

FTIA's "Russian facilitator," Serguei Dymtchenko, remains an important but overlooked figure in the Axis of Evil which ultimately developed and which links all the major players in Masha's adoption. Again, according to Wallace's written testimony:

Mr. Mancuso submitted his original dossier to Ms. Smith, but FTIA never received his original dossier. If Evansville had received an original dossier, we would have record of (1) receiving it, (2) reviewing it, (3) sending it to one of the Russian coordinators/facilitators we worked with at the time.

According to Jeannene Smith's sworn Congressional testimony: "everything that was done was with Mr. Wallace's authorization. Every bit of literature, every bit of information that was disseminated." Clearly either Smith or Wallace or both are lying. That much should shock no one.


And who exactly was FTIA's "Russian coordinator/facilitator . . . at the time?" Not surprisingly it was the exact same person who was ROTIA's Russian coordinator/facilitator at the time, Serguei Dymtchenko.


Here's Dymtchenko's sworn Congressional testimony:

Jeannene Smith introduced me to Keith Wallace and that meeting took place in her home office in Cherry Hill, New Jersey and I started working with FTIA.

What is shocking, however, is a news report dated February 10, 2003, which details FTIA's then-ongoing relationship with Serguei Dymtchenko in Azerbaijan.

FTIA representative Sergey Donchenko, residing in the United States, told Echo that his organization has undergone all the required registration stages--the cabinet, and the justice, education, health, and foreign ministries. Donchenko also stated that the legal basis of international adoption is regulated bilaterally--by both the U.S. and Azeri sides. "Kasimova must be aware of our organization's activities, since she was present at an event arranged at the U.S. Embassy in Azerbaijan with the participation of FTIA representatives," he said.

The news article continues:

One of the main questions that remains unanswered is why the adoption of Azeri children by U.S. citizens should involve huge expenses totaling $22,920, with $11,110 spent in Azerbaijan itself. The chair of the Children's Rights Defense League, Yusif Bekirov, said that Azeri law presumes the adoption procedure will be totally free and charged, "This phenomenon could only be explained by corruption among the officials dealing with adoption issues." He is particularly outraged by the orphanage donations, which are supposed to be an act of free will, but in Azerbaijan they are deemed a mandatory procedure in order to be able to proceed with an adoption application.

$omething about the money part of all thi$ $omehow $eem$ familiar and provide$ yet another crucial link or at lea$t and overriding motivational factor.


Unfortunately, Masha was not the only bungled adoption involving Dymtchenko and his harem. This post, entitled our adoption nightmare further details the relationship between ROTIA's eventual executive director, Marlene Seamans-Conn (who also testified before Congress), and Dymtchenko's 2001 joint venture and PA licensed international adoption agency American Adoptions Abroad (AAA). Readers might remember Seamans-Conn as the sister of renowned naturist Toni Egbert discussed previously in this blog.

We were told that no matter what adoption agency we were using, put "FTIA" where the form asked for the name of your agency. When I started to say that our agency was American Adoptions Abroad, he [Dymtchenko] stopped me before I could finish, and he repeated what he had just said. I did as I was told since just a few weeks before my trip we had received a letter and forms from Marlene stating that FTIA and AAA had formed a cooperative relationship in order for AAA to operate as an accredited agency in Russia. Serguei Dymtchenko is also the same Rostov facilitator used by Families Thru International Adoption (FTIA), located in Evansville, IN. Before receiving notification of this cooperative relationship from our agency, we had never even heard of FTIA. It was now clear that American Adoptions Abroad did not have their own accreditation from the Russian government; they were using FTIA's accreditation.

More on this adoption nightmare from the RipOff Report dated February 19, 2003:

We're posting this because of our frustration in dealing with two adoption agencies we have signed contracts with: American Adoptions Abroad (AAA) and Families Thru International Adoption (FTIA).


For over nine months now we've been trying to negotiate a settlement from a failed adoption we experienced in late April 2002.


After we posted our story to The Adoption Guide we were contacted by an attorney representing AAA ordering us to cease and desist from further postings and demanding we retract our post.


We were forced to hire an attorney as well, but negotiations have gone nowhere. We have also contacted numerous government agencies and regulatory authorities with equally discouraging results.


. . .


Just prior to the referral trip, we were required to sign a new contract with AAA/FTIA, which ironically came just a couple of days after we paid nearly $9,400 to the private company of AAA's International Program Director, Serguei Dymtchenko.


AAA's executive director, Marlene Seamans-Conn, misled us about a number of things, among them the Russian accreditation status of American Adoptions Abroad and the number of adoptions the agency had performed.


AAA used the accreditation, the facilitators, and the in-country staff of Families Thru International Adoption.


After we filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, Bureau of Consumer Protection, one of FTIA's interpreters signed an affidavit regarding his role in our failed adoption experience where he states that he is employed in the Branch Office of FTIA in Russia.


We've read in several instances that this type of "umbrella" arrangement between accredited and unaccredited agencies is an illegal practice according to Russian adoption law.


After our story was posted on The Adoption Guide web site, we were contacted by FTIA's executive director, Keith Wallace.


He stated that he would speak to Serguei Dymtchenko, who also happens to be the Russian facilitator for FTIA, and see if he would return our money.


Needless to say, our money was never returned, and we didn't hear from Mr. Wallace again until he discovered that prospective FTIA families were contacting us regarding our experience with his agency.


The whole thing began to smell even worse when we were told by the New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services that in 1998 FTIA was operating in the state of New Jersey without a license.


FTIA was given a chance to become licensed, but a year later FTIA was still unlicensed and was asked to close its NJ office.


Before Marlene Seamans-Conn started her own agency, she was working for another agency in New Jersey for which Serguei Dymtchenko also facilitated Russian adoptions.


Whenever payments were required for our adoption, we were always asked to send the money to either the home address of Ms. Seamans-Conn in Sewell, NJ, or to the home address of Serguei Dymtchenko in Toms River, NJ, but our payments to Mr. Dymtchenko were required to be marked payable to his own company, TJS.


We've also been told about Mr. Dymtchenko's involvement with another family's adoption nightmare where he was working for Adrienne Lewis of the now defunct Global adoption agency, which was shut down by state authorities in CA and LA where she was licensed.


. . .


The fact that there are agencies out there, AAA being one, that don't even have a social worker on staff is beyond belief.


Mike & Patty

Warren, Michigan

U.S.A.

So there it is folks: ROTIA<->Dymtchenko<->FTIA<->Dymtchenko<->AAA<->ROTIA. A story which begins and ends with ROTIA, with Dymtchenko and FTIA right smack in the middle.

Girl's Little Daddy

In an apparently lighthearted attempt to bring some perspective to the multi-national adoption biz, the Indian Association for Promotion of Adoption and Child Welfare, with a little help from Ogilvy & Mather, created a series of freaky ads with blissful children cuddling needy parents. Finally, truth in advertising! Here's my favorite:



After all, why should the daddy's do all the choosing? And it certainly beats the Adoption.com special edition print, From God's Hands, To My Hands, To Yours, which I blogged about in 2004:



Madison Avenue is finally in da house. I can hardly wait to see what they do with the "rent-a-womb" outsourcing business. The possibilities are truly endless.

Governing the Flesh Trade

By now almost everyone has heard about NY Governor Elliot Spitzer's participation in a high-end prostitution ring. The criminal enterprise responsible for the Emperors Club VIP was indicted in federal court under the same law which prohibits human trafficking. The Governor himself engaged in such trafficking when he ordered up a $2000/hour seven diamond rated prostitute, Kristen, from NYC for delivery to his hotel room in Washington in violation of the Mann Act.


According to the New York Times:

The official said the discussions were likely to focus not on prostitution, but on how it was paid for: Whether the payments from Mr. Spitzer to the service were made in a way to conceal their purpose and source. That could amount to a crime called structuring, which carries a penalty of up to five years in prison.

All this seems so familiar which got me thinking. The Governor, who is oft described as arrogant and self-righteous, would make a great international adoption agency executive director. His agency? The Little Emperors Club VIP. His mission? Fulfilling hopes and dreams.


The gov's got it all wrong. Instead of apologizing he should be spinning this in the best possible light. What's needed here is a merger of the dialectic. Remember the PA Supreme Court's timeless words: "our society has experienced a degree of principle-shifting?" Well that is all so old school now. The 21st century has brought us to a new level of enlightenment. All that prater about "practices . . . so abhorrent to every American that no one would traffic in human life for profit." Come on! "Unfortunately, the lessons of the past are already forgotten." How true, how true. But let's get real man: just show me the money!!


In her siren song Debbie Daffodil Spivak reminded us that "any fees paid during the course of this process are not to buy a child. Rather, fees are for services to ensure the integrity of the process and keep corruption away." Now you're talking. The universal justifying mantra: "fee for services." Storm the barricades!


All Governor Spitzer is really guilty of here is facilitating the seeding of a desperately needed fertile womb. Why outsource this vital business to India?? Like a true American, Spitzer is just fighting to keep this work here at home where it belongs. The $4000 he paid for three hours with V.I.P. Kristen was just a "fee for service" to "ensure the integrity of the process and keep corruption away."


After all, "doing it right demands the navigation of laws, procedures and challenges by intelligent, conscientious, and ethical individuals who choose to dedicate their time and attention to help find families for children despite their qualifications to work elsewhere."


I think this applies to both womb-Kristen and facilitator-Spitzer. But be careful of the Mann Act and criminal structuring which is where all that intelligent, conscientious and ethical individual stuff comes in. I trust that, given their qualifications to work elsewhere, the gov and Kristen were "doing it right."


"The focus should not be on the fact that fees are paid, but, rather, on transparency as to how the fees are spent and assurance that no fees were given to a birthmother to influence her decision in favor of making her child available for adoption." Interesting. I'll tell this to the US Attorney. "Critics should also know that international adoption is a non-profit humanitarian mission."


Okay now I get it. Kristen and her womb were on a non-profit humanitarian mission and the fees, which were paid to run the Emperors Club website, pay the facilitators, deal with all that money and the banks and scheduling, etc. etc. were not to influence Kristen. No sir. She was on a mission

"I'm here for a purpose. I know what my purpose is. I am not a . . . moron, you know what I mean. So maybe that's why girls think they're difficult. That's what it is, because you're here for a purpose. Let's not get it twisted. I know what I do, you know. I'd be like, listen dude, you really want the sex? You know what I mean?"

"Individuals working in this field have often given up lucrative careers in other industries to help these children." Thank you Deb. "We are highly trained, exceedingly committed, and passionate about the work we do." Just like Kristen. Back to Deb:

Indeed, child trafficking [prostitution] is a very real threat to the well-being of all children [women] and must be routed out at all costs. It also exploits the desperation of birth mothers [women] to want to do what seems best for their children under difficult circumstances by going around the law and procedures to achieve an improper end. It is incumbent upon all of us to correct this confusion by reminding those around us that the former is a poison, while the latter is a blessing. Using the terms interchangeably perpetuates the notion that international adoption is inherently corrupt.

Correcting confusion on this issue means forgetting the lessons of the past and orienting our thinking in a way which focuses on the blessing of a fertile womb, unfulfilled hopes and dreams, and the fees for services which ensure the integrity of the process and keep corruption away.


Governor by following the international adoption playas book, you can weather this storm while prospering in the process. And if some backward thinking sops succeed in raising the discarded notion of "trafficking in human life for profit" and you are forced out, think of this as an opportunity to begin a whole new vocation. After all, everyone knows you gave up a lucrative career in other industries to help the cause. Why not fill an empty womb as well?

Shopping for Change

Lest everyone think that we're all just a bunch of Communistic satanic haters over here, I share a bright spot amongst all the darkness. A big gold star to Lindsay Giambattista who leveraged her talent for shopping and teen fashion savvy into a place where foster kids can feel some love.


Lindsay, age 17, oversees a boutique offering clothing to girls in foster care, handling $1 million worth of donated apparel last year from designers, retailers and people from as far away as Tokyo.


The idea started snowballing after Lindsay looked at 10 trash bags filled with her own rejects and decided it wasn't enough. She reached out to friends and relatives, and the word spread.


Taylor's Closet, named after Lindsay's sister who died at birth, now serves about 300 young women in the Fort Lauderdale area, each getting up to six garments a month. Girls in the foster care system, or who recently left it after turning 18, are invited.


And to this born-again girl, who is living out her faith in an honest and positive way, I say you are truly a pearl among the swine. Good job Lindsay. May many others learn from your example.

Something's Rotten in the State of Pennsylvania

Don't take my word for it. Just ask Neils of the Pound Pup Legacy mega-adoption-website-blog. According to this crusading and data-driven site, Pennsylvania has a disproportionate number of adoption agencies compared to other states. Forget all that high-minded legalistic talk of "dealing in humanity," there's money to be made and many good Germans willing to look the other way.


According to Neils

With a total of 206 Pennsylvania has far more agencies than any other state. California, which is almost three times the size of Pennsylvania has 73 agencies less and Illinois which is very comparable in size to Pennsylvania has about half as many licensed agencies.

Don't miss Congressman Bart Stupak's revelation that even a plumber can run an adoption agency in Pennsylvania. And Neils's closing words:

If Pennsylvania thinks we will forget about the Masha Allen case and can return to business as usual, they are dead wrong. Masha Allen's case shocked the nation and will not be forgotten, We are here to make sure of that.

One can only hope that such sentiments, now expressed WORLDWIDE, will be as heartfelt here in the good 'ole U.S. of A. Word up.

Womb Outsourcing Threatens International Adoption

I guess it was only a matter of time before a simple straightforward technological solution was found to eliminate the abuses in international adoption. Today's New York Times highlights the Rent-a-Womb outsourcing movement in India.

An enterprise known as reproductive outsourcing is a new but rapidly expanding business in India. Clinics that provide surrogate mothers for foreigners say they have recently been inundated with requests from the United States and Europe, as word spreads of India's mix of skilled medical professionals, relatively liberal laws and low prices.

In 2003, I wrote about Sperm Donor Introductions for Lesbians and Snowflake Adoptions. In 2004 there was Pregnant for Jesus or Abducted for Adoption and the Saks Newborn Nurseries. And now this.

Surrogacy is an area fraught with ethical and legal uncertainties. Critics argue that the ease with which relatively rich foreigners are able to "rent" the wombs of poor Indians creates the potential for exploitation. Although the government is actively promoting India as a medical tourism destination, what some see as an exchange of money for babies has made many here uncomfortable.

"An exchange of money for babies." I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry, rejoice or reject, or just shelve all this adoption blather and move on. I'll leave with one thought while I sort all this out - another great quote from the NYT story:

Even some of those involved in the business of organizing surrogates want greater regulation. "There must be protection for the surrogates," Mr. Rupak said.
"Inevitably, people are going to smell the money, and unscrupulous
operators will get into the game. I don't trust the industry to police
itself."

Hey, "smell the money" and "unscrupulous operators" rings a familiar bell. Maybe the orphanages can reinvent themselves as surrogate birthing centers. Why not cut out the middle man and go straight for the womb. Perhaps there's hope for international adoption after all.