Clients of Adoption Agency May Be Out of Luck

Families who spent money trying to adopt a child through the now-defunct Adoption Services International may never see their investment again, a Ventura County deputy district attorney said Wednesday.

Unless clients can prove the Ventura-based adoption agency intentionally misled and defrauded them, any money paid for an international adoption could be lost, Deputy Dist. Atty. Greg Brose said.

“It’s somewhat similar to what happens when a health club closes,” said Brose, head of the district attorney’s consumer and environmental protection division. “People pay for a two-year membership, but the club closes in two weeks.”

In such cases, consumers can sue for breach of contract, but it’s extremely difficult to collect the money when a company has none to give, he said.

Meanwhile, indications that ASI was in financial trouble were apparent last month when the agency sent letters requesting donations from client families.

In the letter, Executive Director Marilyn Adams wrote: “We are suffering the pangs of growth and need a hand. Any gift you give will be greatly appreciated. I have enclosed an envelope for your convenience.”

The agency shut its doors late last week--leaving up to 200 families throughout Southern California wondering where to turn to complete their international adoptions.

Adams and other agency officials did not return calls seeking comment.

Another adoption agency that worked closely with Adoption Services International--Journeys of the Heart of Hillsborough, Ore.--said ASI was about $100,000 in debt.

David Salansky, international director of Journeys of the Heart, said he believed ASI owed the government of South Korea between $50,000 and $70,000 for arranging adoptions between Korean children and American families. ASI approached Salansky’s agency last month to discuss a possible merger, but was turned down because of its financial liabilities.

The two agencies worked together since 1999. Adoption Services International would handle most of the American paperwork for an international adoption and then turn clients over to Journeys of the Heart, which handled the foreign end of the transaction. ASI paid the other agency $2,500 per client.

“We won’t be getting that now,” Salansky said.

When ASI shut its doors, it sent letters to clients telling them that Family Connections Adoptions of Modesto would be handling their ongoing cases.

But on Wednesday, the state Department of Social Services took all the company’s files from its closed Ventura office.

Dan Paris of Ventura, who is adopting a Chinese girl, said with the files in state hands, the red tape will increase.

“For all those people not as far along as me, they are dead in the water,” said Paris, who has spent $13,000.

Clients were contacted by Family Connections, which said families would need to sign a waiver to get their files released.

Danny Ruffin of Ventura, who sits on ASI’s board of directors, said the local agency’s trouble began when South Korea cut back on the number of children it made available for international adoption.

Ruffin said South Korea took the action for political reasons. But Salansky said they might have simply cut off ASI because the company didn’t pay its bills.

“Maybe they couldn’t get Korean children because they couldn’t honor their commitments,” he said.

ASI dealt exclusively in placing Korean children before including adoptions from China, Vietnam, India, Guatemala and other nations.

A typical foreign adoption through ASI cost clients between $20,000 and $25,000.

Salansky said the cost of foreign adoptions in Oregon includes about $2,500 for home visits by social workers to make sure the couple are fit parents; $450 for Immigration and Naturalization Service services; $1,000 to process documents; a $3,000 mandatory contribution to the orphanage that the baby comes from; $5,000 in additional fees to the foreign country; and $6,000 in travel expenses.

He said those expenses could be higher in Southern California.

Brose said five people have said they intend to file complaints against ASI, but none have actually completed the paperwork.

“We have little in the way of factual information at this time,” Brose said.