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Couple charges fraud in Uganda adoption
From the Argus Leader:
A Sioux Falls couple who waited patiently for more than a year to bring their adopted children home say they got scammed, and are looking to the courts to help salve their broken hearts.
Cori and Chris Schmaus said they contracted with an Indianapolis company, Americans For African Adoptions, in early 2008 to adopt two Ugandan children whose mother supposedly gave them up after giving birth to them as part of quintuplets.
The Schmauses received photos, birth records and letters about the children, named Sowali and Fatina Bangi. Having paid $11,500 in initial fees, the couple began sending the agency $400 a month for the children’s care.
Each month, they were assured the adoption paperwork was near completion. It wasn’t. The Schmauses said there never was any legitimate paperwork.
Last October, they found out from a New Mexico couple trying to adopt the other two surviving quints that the Bangi children had lived with their mother since birth. The New Mexico couple flew to Kampala, Uganda, met the mother and learned that she never had agreed to give up her children.
Since then, the Schmauses learned that a Ugandan named Joseph Kagimu reportedly staged photos, forged documents and collected money for dozens of children such as the Bangis, then used the information to collect money from unsuspecting Western parents through the Indianapolis agency.
As of last October, the Schmauses had paid $16,800 to Americans for African Adoptions. Two weeks ago, they sued the agency in Minnehaha County, alleging that its director, Cheryl Carter-Shotts, was negligent because she failed to catch on to the scheme. A handful of others, including the New Mexico couple and another in Michigan, have filed or plan to file similar lawsuits as well.
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