US sanctions Ugandan judges over international adoption scam

The US government has financially sanctioned two Ugandan judges and a lawyer for running a fraudulent international adoption scam, where they tricked Ugandan parents into giving away their children and then sent them to families in America.

The judges, Moses Mukiibi and Wilson Musalu Musene, as well as lawyer Dorah Mirembe and her associate and husband Patrick Ecobu, have also been banned from entering the US.

Ms Mirembe's law firm was responsible for hiring people to search for vulnerable families living in remote Ugandan villages, according to a statement on the US State Department website. Parents were told that their children would be moved to the Ugandan capital, Kampala, for educational opportunities. The children were kept in an unlicensed children's home where they were then introduced to adoptive parents who travelled from the US.

According to the US statement, Ugandan judges and officials were bribed to approve the cases or to redirect them to Mr Mukiibi or Mr Musene.

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Financial sanctions allow the US to seize any assets they have under US jurisdiction.

Indictment

On August 14th, two women in the US, as well as Ms Mirembe, were also charged for their alleged related roles arranging the adoption of children from both Uganda and Poland, according to an indictment published on the US Department of Justice website.

Between 2013 and 2016, more than 30 children from Uganda were adopted by Americans, who paid roughly $900,000 (€755,000) between them. The adoptions were arranged through the now-defunct organisation European Adoption Consultants (EAC).

The indictment said "many" of the children were ultimately returned to their birth mothers, after the parents who adopted them became suspicious that they were not orphans.

The bribery alleged to have taken place included paying welfare officers to recommend that children with family be placed into an orphanage.

"These three defendants preyed on the emotions of parents, those wanting the best for their child, and those wishing to give what they thought was an orphaned child a family to love," said the FBI's Eric B Smith. "These defendants allegedly lied to both sides of the adoption process . . . Parents, prospective parents and children were emotionally vested and were heartbroken when they learned of the selfishness and greed in which these three engaged."

In 2017, photographer Jessica Davis wrote for CNN about how she had adopted a young girl through EAC who turned out to have a living birth mother, and said it had taken a year and a half for her family to realise what had happened.

“International adoption must be reformed,” Davis said. “Adopting parents and the governments involved in this process cannot plead ignorance anymore . . . The travesty in this injustice is beyond words.”