Child Adoption Services Scam
The dreams of many parents in Canada who want to adopt children via child adoption services have been put on hold in the aftermath of the Imagine Adoption agency scam. In one case, a hopeful parent had applied to adopt a baby girl from Ethiopia. She went through a lengthy and intrusive government assessment which included a financial review and an Interpol check.
After all of that, she discovered that the former operators of the Cambridge adoption agency she hired were charged with fraud and breach of trust. Parents had paid upwards of $15,000 to the Imagine Adoption agency, but the business subsequently filed for bankruptcy protection before many of the adoptions were completed. The couple behind the agency were charged with multiple counts of fraud and breach of trust for squandering adoption fees on home renovations, cosmetic dentistry and trips to New York.