Pakistan Adoption Scam

Shady business practices in adoption abound wherever the business originates. This business was based in Malta.

In this case, the adoption agent falsely promised a refund if things didn’t work out. False promises are one of the elements that we see repeated in failed adoptions.

After the process started, the agent asked for more money to obtain additional paperwork–in this case a medical certificate. Additional monetary requests are far too often commonplace in international adoption.

Instead of using that money for what it was purposed for, she gave some of it for another adoption and used the rest for her own adoption organization to “sort out problems”. This brings up another concept that we believe is entangled with shady business practices–suspicious movement of money. Some adoption professionals make extremely high salaries from their “nonproft”, but it doesn’t just stop there. Is it for bribes? Is it money laundering? Who gets kickbacks? These are questions that need to be pursued when investigating these practices.

Additionally, children were “smuggled” across an international border. They were taken from hospitals and kept in a private home before the smuggling. In case after case, we see health professionals in hospitals aiding in trafficking. Keeping children in private homes is reminiscent of stories out of Guatemala.

We can’t leave out that the name of this organization is The New United Christian Foundation. Hiding unethical behavior behind religion, sadly, is all too common.

“A woman made infamous because of her handling of adoptions from Pakistan was given a suspended jail term Tuesday after she failed to return almost €12,000 to a couple following a failed adoption. A report in Malta Times said Wednesday.

Concetta Charles, 53, of Safi, had signed a contract in 2001 with Raymond and Josette Mallia to bring a baby boy to Malta from Pakistan for adoption and promised them that if it was not successful she would refund €11,650. The money had been requested under the pretence that it would be used to officiate the process of adoption in Pakistan and in 2003 Ms Charles asked them for a further €1,165 to obtain a medical certificate. She in fact used the money to help fund another adoption by a Maltese family in financial difficulties and to help her adoption organisation in Pakistan, Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera noted.

Mr Mallia testified he had been told by Ms Charles on more than one occasion that the child was on the way. He would show up at the airport only to be told there had been some problem. He had phoned her on these occasions and she gave him different excuses.Magistrate Scerri Herrera noted that in her police statement Ms Charles admitted to using the money to fund another adoption by a Maltese family who were financially unstable. She also admitted to using some of the money to sort out problems in Pakistan.

The magistrate said Ms Charles had acted deceptively when taking the money from the couple. This was a very serious crime that merited a suspended jail term. She handed down a two year jail term suspended for four years and also ordered her to pay €12,811 back to the couple.

Ms Charles said she had started acting as an adoption agency in 2001, under the name of The New United Christian Foundation, together with her Maltese husband Dennis, who was born in Pakistan.In 2003, their activity hit the headlines in Karachi after a newspaper, reported that she had admitted to smuggling children out of Pakistan to take them to Maltese couples.The newspaper said the Pakistani police in Gulshan-i-Iqbal in Karachi had received letters alleging there was a bungalow in the area where four boys and seven girls were kept after being smuggled out of state-run and private hospitals.

Mr Charles had been convicted and jailed for seven years by a Pakistani court.”

Woman given suspended prison term in Malta
[Pakistan Observer 9/23/11]

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