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Adoption Agency Manager Pleads Guilty to Ethiopian Adoption Scam
Greenville, SC – Alisa Bivens, 42, the former foreign program director of International Adoption Guides Inc. (IAG), pleaded guilty today to conspiring with others to defraud the United States by paying bribes to foreign officials and submitting fraudulent documents to the State Department for adoptions from Ethiopia.
In a shocking turn of events, Bivens admitted to submitting fraudulent documents to the State Department to facilitate adoptions of Ethiopian children by U.S. parents from 2006 until 2009. The documents, including contracts of adoption signed by orphanages, were found to be false.
As part of her plea, Bivens admitted to paying bribes to two Ethiopian officials so that they would help with the fraudulent adoptions. The first of these officials, an audiologist and teacher at a government school, accepted money and other valuables in exchange for providing non-public medical information and social history information for potential adoptees.
The second official, the head of a regional ministry for women’s and children’s affairs, received money and all-expenses-paid travel in exchange for approving IAG’s applications for intercountry adoptions and for ignoring IAG’s failure to maintain a properly licensed adoption facility.
This ongoing investigation is being conducted by the Bureau of Diplomatic Security. The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney John W. Borchert of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jamie Lea Schoen for the District of South Carolina.
Sentencing for Bivens will be scheduled at a later date.
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RELATED: Debra Parris Guilty in Uganda, Poland Adoption Bribery Scheme
Key Facts
- State: South Carolina
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes|White Collar Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release ↗
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