Florida Adoption Agency
Accused of Buying Children
By Sandra Hernandez
and Megan O'Matz - Sun-Sentinel.com
At least three women whose children were found in a
house leased by a Coral Springs, Florida,
adoption agency have admitted receiving money in
exchange for their children, according to officials
here and in Guatemala investigating a
baby-trafficking ring.
In one instance a woman received the equivalent of
$630 for her 30-month-old son, according to a report
from the Attorney General's Office here.
The sum is less than a month's rent on the house,
which was leased in August and run by International
Adoption Resource Inc. of Coral Springs. The lease
agreement, obtained by the South Florida
Sun-Sentinel, was signed by Rebecca K. Thurmond,
IAR's executive director.
Thurmond has declined all interviews. Through an
attorney, she vehemently denied the allegations of
baby selling.
The attorney, Cheryl R. Eisen of Boca Raton,
acknowledged this week that IAR arranged for
Guatemalan women who wanted to give up their babies
to come to Costa Rica and stay at the house while
the adoptions were processed by private attorneys.
The arrangement was legal under Costa Rican law,
Eisen said. She added that it was designed to
overcome a hiatus in foreign adoptions in Guatemala
for IAR clients who were "beside themselves with
grief," over the delays.
She said IAR is being unfairly portrayed by
opponents of international adoptions. "One man's
trafficking is another's humanitarian effort."
IAR has been at the center of an international
investigation after Costa Rican police found nine
children in the house in September. The Florida
Department of Children and Families and immigration
authorities are investigating the agency. On Dec. 5,
DCF suspended the company's operating license.
With its colorful purple and tan trim, the two-story
dwelling blends into the row of modest homes in a
working class neighborhood.
Thurmond told the owner of the house that IAR was an
international agency working to prevent abortions by
providing shelter and medical help to poor women
with unwanted pregnancies. Eventually the babies
could be adopted, the owner said she was told.
A month after Thurmond rented the house, neighbors
complained about the constant cry of babies. Police
found seven babies brought from Guatemala and two
infants born in Costa Rica. Some were in six cribs;
others slept on mats. Some were malnourished, Costa
Rica child welfare authorities said.
This week, Eisen acknowledged that IAR set up the
house as a shelter for women and children in Costa
Rica looking for help. Among the women were
Guatemalans who came to the house after giving birth
to relinquish their children for adoption at a time
when Guatemala had suspended all overseas
placements.
The plan was legal under Costa Rican law, which
permits private adoptions processed through
attorneys, Eisen said.
Costa Rica officials noted in legal documents that
IAR "operated through an Internet page offering boys
and girls who were available for adoption. …They
were offered like a product for sale from a
catalog."
None of the mothers interviewed as part of the
investigation were told their children would be
adopted, said Sandra Zayas, who heads the office for
women's issues in the Attorney General's Office in
Guatemala. Two women signed documents in Guatemala
saying they were putting their children up for
adoption, but those women are illiterate, Zayas
said. One woman received 17,000 quetzals or about
$2,145 from a Costa Rican woman, whom investigators
did not name.
While investigators search for the mothers of the
other children found at the house, at least two
people who helped IAR in Costa Rica are in jail or
are the target of an international manhunt.
Costa Rican officials issued an arrest warrant in
November for IAR's adoption coordinator, Rolf Levy
of Miami, who is accused of trafficking in minors.
Levy, 63, has used at least five aliases on various
documents.
In a letter to DCF this month, Eisen said IAR has
severed all connections to Levy.
The other link to IAR, Carlos Hernán Robles, is a
Costa Rican attorney who was detained following the
raid on the house, where numerous documents bearing
his name were found.
In an interview in September, Levy said IAR had no
connection to the house and that Robles was only
hired to process paperwork for IAR to become a
licensed adoption agency in Costa Rica. Robles is
serving 24 years in prison on an unrelated
embezzlement case. Levy said he was unaware of
Robles' criminal conviction, a well-publicized
scandal in this country.
DCF, in suspending IAR's license, said Thurmond and
Levy "specifically denied any business or working
relationship" with Robles.
Eisen said IAR's operations were arranged by an
attorney, whose name she did not know, but who was
not Robles.
"This man, Mr. Robles, was in the same office,"
Eisen said. "He was not their primary attorney."
Although some documents bear Robles' name, Eisen
said it is not unusual in international adoptions
for a foreign agency to contract with a primary
attorney, who then requests assistance from lawyers
and officials in the country.
The Costa Rica Attorney General's Office thinks
Robles' role was much greater than IAR contends and
that he acted as IAR's legal representative before
Costa Rica's Registry of Adoptions, a branch of the
government agency known as the PANI.
In a July letter to the registry and notarized in
Florida, Thurmond gave Robles and Mauricio Brenes,
another lawyer, power of attorney to act on IAR's
behalf, according to the PANI.
Elisa Paniagua, a notary public in Costa Rica, told
investigators Robles and Brenes visited the house to
gather the women's signatures on legal documents.
She also confirmed meeting with Thurmond and Levy as
well as Robles.
"Both Kathleen Thurmond and Rolf Levy were in
Robles' office several times," Paniagua said in a
telephone interview. "I can't remember if it was 10
or 15 times but, yes, it was more than three and I
was introduced to them by Mr. Robles."
In the case that initially drew the authorities'
attention, Yadira Chacon Pleites, a Guatemalan
national, allegedly entered Costa Rica by bus on
Sept. 4 along with the 30-month-old boy, according
to the Costa Rican Attorney General's Office.
She claimed the child was to be brought to IAR's
house in San Jose and that the birth mother was paid
about $630.
Upon entering Costa Rica, she made statements to a
taxi driver that raised his suspicion and he
notified officials. They went to the hotel where
Chacon and the boy were staying and questioned her
about her relationship to the child.
She claimed to be the boy's mother and presented a
passport with the name Zulmi Maribel Urbina Carcamo,
according to legal documents. Officials immediately
noticed discrepancies. Chacon did not appear to be
the same woman in the passport photo.
The documents go on to say Chacon then admitted she
was not the boy's mother but she was told to use the
passport by an attorney with whom she worked so the
child could receive urgent medical attention. The
lawyer is not named.
Chacon, who is being detained, faces charges of
using false documents as investigators continue
their probe of the possible smuggling case.
The attorney general's office is investigating the
ties between IAR and Chacon.
At least two women living in the house at the time
of the raid were authorized to act on IAR's behalf,
according to the documents.
On Sept. 5, Thurmond signed a document giving
certain legal powers to Astrid Carolina Sinto
Ramirez, a Guatemalan national, to represent IAR,
according to the records. The documents go on to say
these powers were to be used to allow IAR to receive
a Guatemalan child born June 5 who was abandoned by
her mother and would be placed for adoption.While
arranging the private adoptions of Guatemalan
children in Costa Rica, Thurmond was trying to
register the corporation with the government as a
recognized adoption agency.
"She did apply for corporate status there," said
Eisen. "She wasn't hiding."
The application was denied.
Although IAR is a for-profit company in Florida, the
Costa Rican registry received a letter in September,
stating that IAR is a non-profit agency registered
with Florida's DCF. In addition the letter states
the agency "has no commercial ends and we do not
charge any fees to the adoptive parents nor do we
offer any payment to the parents of the children
adopted," according to the letter presented to the
PANI.
DCF records show, however, IAR charges about $6,500
to process adoptions, in addition to as much as
$19,000 for foreign attorneys and DNA testing.
Eisen could not explain the discrepancy, except to
say that Thurmond was setting up IAR's arm in Costa
Rica as well as a charitable foundation and that
some documents may have contained errors.
Eisen said the allegations against IAR amount to no
more than "international innuendo and gossip."
"It all doesn't amount to wrongdoing by Rebecca
Thurmond, who really is IAR. It is her corporation."
Eisen said. "She hasn't done anything wrong."
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