How Could You? Hall of Shame -Oropezas UPDATED

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Tampa, Florida, foster-to-adopt parents Radhames and Asia Oropeza were each sentenced to 3 years in prison for stealing $409,586 in life insurance money from their adopted son Markus Min Ho Kim. “Each must also serve three years of supervised release and complete 250 hours of community service.”

“The couple has paid $175,275 toward a total restitution of $409,586. The Oropezas testified that they got most of the money from family and friends.” They intend to pay the rest back when they are able to sell their real estate properties.

Radhames went to trial in October 2010 and was convicted on conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Asia opted not to go to trial and pled guilty to wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Markus was placed into foster care when his dad  murdered his mom. The life insurance policy from his mother’s death became available when Markus turned 18. The Oropezas “managed to convince him to put the money into certificates of deposit.

Prosecutors say the couple, who owned numerous real estate properties, took the money to pay home equity lines of credit.”

“The Oropezas said that they would like to mend their relationship with their adopted son and desire to repay him fully.

“We are going to love him forever,” said Radhames Oropeza.”

Oh pulllease!

“Ostrander said the couple has had many foster children over the years and they have a deep love of children.

They have been upset since their indictment with no longer being able to have foster children.

“It was a terrible blow to them,” he said.”

Yes, what a blow to the Oropezas…they are such victims….

Davenport Couple Sentenced For Stealing From Their Foster Child
[The Ledger 3/21/11 by Jason Geary]

Update: “Markus Kim, a 25-year-old stage hand from New York City, was handed a check for $409,662.94.”

“When he was 5 years old, Markus Kim came from Korea to the United States with his parents.
In 2000, at the age of 14, Kim was involved in a horrific tragedy. His father was arrested and convicted of stabbing his mother to death. His mother had a life insurance policy that Markus was the beneficiary of.

Kim was put in foster care with Radhames and Asia Oropeza, in New York. He says the couple knew about the policy he’d get when he turned 18.

“I believe they were notified of it when I was in foster care. So they caught wind of it before they even met me,” he says.

At the age of 18, he got the money. And Markus says as he approached his 19th birthday, the Oropeza’s adopted him.

Then he says they convinced him to let them help him manage his money.

“They actually convinced me that they would be better able to help me than the agency could. And I was distraught, to say the least. And I heeded their advice. And it’s probably one of my biggest mistakes,” he said.

He later started realizing his money was vanishing.

“They basically talked me into signing myself out of foster care. and then signing the money over to them, basically. And they took it from there. Then around that time, I realized the accounts where I deposited the money in, was supposed to mature and it didn’t. So I went to the bank myself and checked up on it. And that’s when it unraveled,” he said.

The couple left Kim, moving to Florida, where they bought several houses and properties in Polk County.

Robert O’Neill, U.S. Attorney for the United States Middle District in Tampa, says they got a call from an attorney in Fort Lauderdale. Kim had contacted Howard Talenfeld, who he found on the internet, as helping other foster children.

Talenfeld said he couldn’t get any help from child welfare authorities in New York. So he called Robert O’Neill.

An investigation also involving the FBI, and FDLE ensued and took three years.”
Former foster child gets stolen money back
[Fox Tampa Bay 7/19/11 by Tanya Arja]

“One summer day in 2004, a teenager returned to his New York City home and found his foster parents gone. They turned off the water and the gas. They left no note.

Two months passed before the couple finally called. They had moved to Polk County. They were getting into real estate. Maybe he should fly down, they later suggested, and take a look?

His trip to Florida set into motion the loss of $400,000 for Markus Min Ho Kim — all of it money he received as the beneficiary of his murdered mother’s life insurance policy.”

“Kim, now 25, emigrated with his biological parents to the United States from South Korea when he was 5 years old. In New York, his father owned a jewelry store; his mother ran a beauty salon.

In 2000, Kim’s mother, Ji Sun Kim, was murdered. Kim’s father, Yung Hu Kim, was convicted of the crime and sent to prison in New York. Kim was placed in foster care.

Before his mother died, she took out a life insurance policy worth nearly $500,000. Kim was the beneficiary, but he could not tap into the proceeds until he turned 18.

Kim was 18 by the time the Oropezas flew him to Florida in 2005. They took him to a bank and convinced him to buy two certificates of deposit with $400,000 from the insurance policy.

They told him the CDs would protect his money and that he would earn $1,000 a month just from the interest. Kim would later say his foster mother signed the documents, too. He thought she was there to help.

But after a few months, the interest checks stopped coming. Kim called the bank and eventually found out the CDs had been closed.

What federal prosecutors would later say: The Oropezas withdrew large amounts of money from the certificates of deposit and spent it on real estate investment properties. Kim’s name was forged on the documents.”

“On Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement held a press conference in Tampa to announce this unusual news: Kim is getting every penny back.

Officials credited the convictions and the recovery of the funds to the participation of all the agencies, plus the pro bono work of Fort Lauderdale attorney Howard Talenfeld on Kim’s behalf.”
Feds recover $410,000 owed to man defrauded by foster parents
[St Petersburg Times 7/20/11 by Jodie Tillman]

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