James Charles Webb, owner of the Adoption Center of Center, or ACC, in
American Fork, was arrested on Friday, charged with taking $100,400 in
payments from four families who expected he would help them adopt
babies. The families never adopted the babies but Webb kept the money,
according to court documents.
Webb was also charge with four counts of tax evasion for failing to pay $226,000 in taxes.
ACC has not been in business since its licensed was yanked by the State of Utah Department of Human Services in January of 2014.
In
September of 2013, The Utah Division of Licensing placed ACC's license
on probation so it could become compliant after failing to follow state
rules. One of the conditions of the probationary license was that the
agency would take no new birth mothers or adoptive parents as clients
for six months.
Charging documents say that during that period,
Webb took payments from the four families. According to the families,
all the adoptions feel through and they did not get their money back.
Webb
had problems years earlier. His agency facilitated the adoption of a
newborn baby girl to a Utah family. The birth mother did not reveal
that her estranged husband was not aware of the adoption. The father,
Terry Achane, sued and got his baby girl back. According to the Salt
Lake Tribune in 2012, the judge in the case said he was "astonished and
troubled" by the adoption agency's role in circumventing the father's
rights
http://kutv.com/news/local/owner-of-utah-county-adoption-agency-arrested
ReplyDeleteImagine be willing to open your heart and home up to a baby that is not wanted, Imagine the heartbreak you would feel listening to someone tell you they were raped and that they wanted to move past this experience and you know that you could and want to give this precious child love and a life. Then imagine after phone calls and telling your children that they are getting a new sibling, painting a nursery, telling your family and friends, shopping for clothes, getting attorneys and worrying that the mother is safe and warm and being taken care of that BOOM! you find out it's a fake, a scam, the baby never existed, the lady on the other end of the phone is not real, her life is not real, and her story is not real. Can you believe that there are awful people in the world that would do something like this? The girl has a new boyfriend, they have a FB page, and a couple of the friends were in on the scam. Amazing huh! This happened recently to people that I know. They were represented by Adoption.org. Not exactly sure why the agency was not aware of her or why the agency DID NOT have better safeguards in place but it happened. They are now out a substantial amount of money and suffered of course emotionally. It is just so sad!
Imagine be willing to open your heart and home up to a baby that is not wanted, Imagine the heartbreak you would feel listening to someone tell you they were raped and that they wanted to move past this experience and you know that you could and want to give this precious child love and a life. Then imagine after phone calls and telling your children that they are getting a new sibling, painting a nursery, telling your family and friends, shopping for clothes, getting attorneys and worrying that the mother is safe and warm and being taken care of that BOOM! you find out it's a fake, a scam, the baby never existed, the lady on the other end of the phone is not real, her life is not real, and her story is not real. Can you believe that there are awful people in the world that would do something like this? The girl has a new boyfriend, they have a FB page, and a couple of the friends were in on the scam. Amazing huh! This happened recently to people that I know. They were represented by Adoption.org and the scammer was Heather Burgess. Heather Burgess had been on the news, her information had been shared, and Adoption.org should have known about her Not exactly sure why the agency was not aware of her or why the agency DID NOT have better safeguards in place but it happened. They are now out a substantial amount of money and suffered of course emotionally. It is just so sad!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you, they should have had better safe guards in place. Did they ever get proof of pregnancy? Verify it?
ReplyDelete