Thread: FBI Protected Woman Who Made $200 Million Selling Up To 8,000 Children Over 40 Years

FBI Protected Woman Who Made $200 Million Selling Up To 8,000 Children Over 40 Years - She Got 3 Months Minimum Security Prison Sentence

Sunday, September 25, 2022 18:17


Chalk this up to just one more reason the Federal Bureau of Investigation should be abolished, along with the whole of Washington DC. The FBI, once again, has been found guilty of protecting criminals and the justice system guilty of failing to provide justice. A judge has found that the FBI protected a mother who sold up to 8,000 children for $200 million over 4 decades. Her sentence? She got 3 months in a minimum security prison.
ABC7 reports:
Margaret Cole, the former owner of European Adoption Consultants, was sentenced today in United States District Court in the Northern District of Ohio to three months in federal prison, and three years supervised release plus 12 months of home confinement. Cole has to pay a $7,500 fine.
This comes on the heels of her pleading guilty on February 4 to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and one count of making a false statement to the Polish Central authority in front of Federal Court Judge James Gwin in a Zoom hearing 7News attended in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Ohio.

The 74-year-old woman, who told the court she suffered from PTSD, high blood pressure and vertigo, accepted a plea deal from the U.S. Department of Justice that she had previously turned down in January.
7News Investigator Scott Taylor broke this story in January 2017 after learning the U.S. State Department pulled the accreditation of European Adoption Consultants based in Strongsville, Ohio that arranges adoptions for U.S. families all over the world.
…
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, three women were charged in a 13-count indictment filed on Aug. 14 in the Northern District of Ohio for their alleged roles in schemes to corruptly and fraudulently procure adoptions of Ugandan and Polish children through bribing Ugandan officials and defrauding U.S. adoptive parents, U.S. authorities, and a Polish regulatory authority.
Margaret Cole, 73, of Strongsville, Ohio, 68-year-old Debra Parris of Lake Dallas, Texas, and 41-year-old Dorah Mirembe of Kampala, Uganda, were charged in the indictment. In relation to the Uganda scheme, Parris and Mirembe were each charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and commit visa fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, three substantive FCPA counts and three substantive counts of money laundering. Parris was also charged with one count of mail fraud.

In relation to the Poland scheme, Parris and Cole were each charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States. Cole was further charged with one count of making a false statement to a U.S. accrediting entity and one count of making a false statement to a Polish authority.
“The defendants allegedly resorted to bribery and fraud to engage in an international criminal adoption scheme that took children from their home countries in Uganda and Poland without properly determining whether they were actually orphaned. The defendants sought to profit from their alleged criminal activity at the expense of families and vulnerable children,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “These charges clearly show that the Department of Justice is committed to protecting children worldwide, including those involved in the international adoption process.”
“These defendants are accused of orchestrating an alleged scheme that bribed Ugandan officials, defrauded the United States and manipulated parents inside and outside of the country,” said U.S. Attorney Justin Herdman of the Northern District of Ohio. “As a result of this alleged conduct, prospective parents were deceived, hundreds of thousands of dollars were misused and innocent children were displaced from their homes.”
“These three defendants preyed on the emotions of parents, those wanting the best for their child, and those wishing to give what they thought was an orphaned child a family to love,” said Special Agent in Charge Eric B. Smith of the FBI’s Cleveland Field Office. “These defendants allegedly lied to both sides of the adoption process and bribed Ugandan officials who were responsible for the welfare of children. Parents, prospective parents and children were emotionally vested and were heartbroken when they learned of the selfishness and greed in which these three engaged. The FBI will never cease in its efforts to protect the innocent and unwitting from those who prey on that trust and confidence and we will vigorously pursue and hold those responsible accountable.”
With respect to the Uganda scheme, the indictment alleges that Parris and Mirembe, together with others, engaged in a scheme to pay bribes to Ugandan officials to corruptly procure the adoption of Ugandan children by families in the United States, including the adoption of children who were not properly determined to be orphaned and who had to be ultimately returned to their birth parents.

There’s more. The FBI was covering it up.
Defense attorneys admitted in court filings that Cole is still in business after making $200 million over 40 years from selling 8000 children through fraudulent international adoptions. According to Judge James Gwin, the FBI protected Cole’s child trafficking network for 40 years and failed to investigate her. Instead, it was the State Department that investigated Cole. (Source.)
Cole’s stepson, Robert E. Hughes III, still works for the FBI. He was assigned to investigate her case by Andy McCabe, who at the time, was Acting Director of the FBI. (Source.)
Defense attorneys said the evidence against their client would have filled the Library of Congress.
Cole is wanted for child trafficking fraud in Poland. (Source.)
Margaret Cole Hughes, 75, began her three-month prison sentence in Alderson Federal Prison as a result of her plea deal. It is located in the resort area of Greenbriar, W. Virginia. (Source.)
This is the same FBI that has taken over child porn websites and then violated the law by distributing pictures and videos of children to catch those that look at them. It’s also the same FBI that has been targeting patriots for standing against a corrupt federal government. Find the list of 919 people arrested for exercising freedom of speech on January 6, 2001 here.
Article posted with permission from Sons of Liberty Media

FBI Protected Woman Who Made $200 Million Selling Up To 8,000 Children Over 40 Years - She Got 3 Months Minimum Security Prison Sentence | U. S. Politics | Before It's News (beforeitsnews.com)

Former owner of international adoption agency sentenced to federal prison

by Scott Taylor
Thursday, May 19th 2022

W ALL PHOTOS

European Adoption Consultants based in Strongsville, Ohio 2.jpg
Margaret Cole, the former owner of European Adoption Consultants, was sentenced today in United States District Court in the Northern District of Ohio to three months in federal prison, and three years supervised release plus 12 months of home confinement. Cole has to pay a $7,500 fine.
This comes on the heels of her pleading guilty on February 4 to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and one count of making a false statement to the Polish Central authority in front of Federal Court Judge James Gwin in a Zoom hearing 7News attended in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Ohio.
RELATED | Owner of international adoption agency will stand trial for defrauding the U.S.
The 74-year-old woman, who told the court she suffered from PTSD, high blood pressure and vertigo, accepted a plea deal from the U.S. Department of Justice that she had previously turned down in January.
7News Investigator Scott Taylor broke this story in January 2017 after learning the U.S. State Department pulled the accreditation of European Adoption Consultants based in Strongsville, Ohio that arranges adoptions for U.S. families all over the world.

Read the indictment of Margaret Cole here.




Scott Taylor 7 News I-Team
@ScottTaylorTV
·
Follow

BREAKING: Margaret Cole, former owner of international adoption agency in Ohio sentenced to 3 months in federal prison, 1 year of home confinement, 3 years of probation & $7,500 fine in a fraudulent adoption scheme. I broke this story in 2017 at @7NewsDC



wjla.com
Former owner of international adoption agency pleads guilty to fraudulent adoption scheme
Margaret Cole, the former owner of European Adoption Consultants, pled guilty Friday to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and one count of making a false statement to the Polish...

1:13 PM · May 19, 2022


The FBI raided EAC shortly after the State Department’s findings.

Read Scott Taylor's original story here: I-Team discovers historic move by U.S. State Department
Cole's trial was set to start on February 9, but after accepting a plea deal she now facing sentencing on May 27 at 10 a.m. in federal court in Cleveland, Ohio.
She faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each of the charges she agreed to plead guilty to in Thursday's Zoom hearing.
The DOJ and Cole do not have an agreement on the length of the sentence she could receive in May.
7News On Your Side became aware of multiple families that had overseas adoptions up in the air after the State Department placed EAC on a three-year suspension.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, three women were charged in a 13-count indictment filed on Aug. 14 in the Northern District of Ohio for their alleged roles in schemes to corruptly and fraudulently procure adoptions of Ugandan and Polish children through bribing Ugandan officials and defrauding U.S. adoptive parents, U.S. authorities, and a Polish regulatory authority.
Margaret Cole, 73, of Strongsville, Ohio, 68-year-old Debra Parris of Lake Dallas, Texas, and 41-year-old Dorah Mirembe of Kampala, Uganda, were charged in the indictment. In relation to the Uganda scheme, Parris and Mirembe were each charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and commit visa fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, three substantive FCPA counts and three substantive counts of money laundering. Parris was also charged with one count of mail fraud.
In relation to the Poland scheme, Parris and Cole were each charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States. Cole was further charged with one count of making a false statement to a U.S. accrediting entity and one count of making a false statement to a Polish authority.
“The defendants allegedly resorted to bribery and fraud to engage in an international criminal adoption scheme that took children from their home countries in Uganda and Poland without properly determining whether they were actually orphaned. The defendants sought to profit from their alleged criminal activity at the expense of families and vulnerable children,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “These charges clearly show that the Department of Justice is committed to protecting children worldwide, including those involved in the international adoption process.”
“These defendants are accused of orchestrating an alleged scheme that bribed Ugandan officials, defrauded the United States and manipulated parents inside and outside of the country,” said U.S. Attorney Justin Herdman of the Northern District of Ohio. “As a result of this alleged conduct, prospective parents were deceived, hundreds of thousands of dollars were misused and innocent children were displaced from their homes.”
“These three defendants preyed on the emotions of parents, those wanting the best for their child, and those wishing to give what they thought was an orphaned child a family to love,” said Special Agent in Charge Eric B. Smith of the FBI’s Cleveland Field Office. “These defendants allegedly lied to both sides of the adoption process and bribed Ugandan officials who were responsible for the welfare of children. Parents, prospective parents and children were emotionally vested and were heartbroken when they learned of the selfishness and greed in which these three engaged. The FBI will never cease in its efforts to protect the innocent and unwitting from those who prey on that trust and confidence and we will vigorously pursue and hold those responsible accountable.”
With respect to the Uganda scheme, the indictment alleges that Parris and Mirembe, together with others, engaged in a scheme to pay bribes to Ugandan officials to corruptly procure the adoption of Ugandan children by families in the United States, including the adoption of children who were not properly determined to be orphaned and who had to be ultimately returned to their birth parents.
Specifically, Parris, Mirembe, and their co-conspirators allegedly (1) paid bribes to social welfare officers in exchange for them issuing welfare reports recommending that certain children be placed into orphanages without first ensuring that the children were actually orphaned or that putting them up for adoption was in the children’s best interest; (2) paid bribes to Ugandan magistrate judges to obtain court orders placing those children in an orphanage that was willing to accept the children without inquiring into whether they were actually orphans; (3) paid bribes to court registrars to cause the court registrars to assign the cases of these children to two corrupt “adoption-friendly” judges; and (4) paid bribes to the corrupt Ugandan judges to obtain orders to permit their clients to bring the children to the United States for adoption.
Parris, Mirembe, and others also allegedly lied to, and concealed material information from, adoptive parents, including lying about the bribe payments and whether the children were properly determined to be eligible for adoption, and concealing other material information about the children’s history. The indictment also alleges that Parris, Mirembe, and others agreed to cause false documents to be submitted to the U.S. Department of State to hide the corrupt and fraudulent scheme and to mislead it in its adjudication of visa applications for the Ugandan children being considered for adoption. The co-conspirators and the entities they worked for received more than $900,000 in connection with these adoptions.
With respect to the Poland scheme, the indictment alleges that after clients of their adoption agency determined they could not care for one of the two Polish children they were set to adopt, Cole and Parris took steps to transfer the child to Parris’s relatives, who were not eligible for intercountry adoption and one of whom had a criminal arrest record. After the child was physically abused, Cole and Parris took steps to conceal their improper conduct from the entity responsible for accrediting U.S. intercountry adoption agencies—and from the Polish authority responsible for intercountry adoptions—in an attempt to continue profiting from these adoptions.
7News has learned that Parris has pled guilty and will be sentenced sometime later this year. Read about Parris's plea deal here.
Mirembe remains at large.
Ted Coley, the Director of the Office of Children’s Issues for the U.S. State Department in 2017 said, "The whole action we took is unusual and unprecedented. It's the first time in history that the State Department debarred an adoption service provider for any period of time."
Investigators found 18 different types of violations, claiming EAC fraudulently obtained birth parents' consent, solicited bribes, and offered consideration to birth parents to induce them to release their children.
7News discovered several families from the U.S. including some from the DMV traveled to different countries in 2017 and didn't discover there was a potential problem with their EAC adoption until after arriving overseas.

​Former owner of international adoption agency sentenced to federal prison | WJLA