{"id":48524,"date":"2021-11-17T21:24:57","date_gmt":"2021-11-18T05:24:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=48524"},"modified":"2021-11-17T21:24:57","modified_gmt":"2021-11-18T05:24:57","slug":"texas-woman-guilty-of-setting-up-illegal-adoptions-from-uganda-and-poland-bribing-officials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=48524","title":{"rendered":"Texas Woman Guilty of Setting Up Illegal Adoptions from Uganda and Poland, Bribing Officials"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Texas woman who was a program manager at an Ohio-based international adoption agency plead guilty Wednesday in federal court in Ohio to bribing Ugandan officials to adopt Ugandan and Polish children, officials stated.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"\"According to court documents, Debra Parris, 69, of Lake Dallas, engaged in a scheme with others to bribe Ugandan officials to procure adoptions of Ugandan children by families in the United States. <\/span><\/p>\n

These bribes included payments to the following people:<\/span><\/p>\n

(a) Probation officers intended to ensure favorable probation reports recommending that a particular child be placed into an orphanage.<\/span><\/p>\n

(b) Court registrars to influence the assignment of particular cases to \u201cadoption-friendly\u201d judges.<\/span><\/p>\n

(c) High Court judges to issue favorable guardianship orders for the adoption agency\u2019s clients.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"In her plea agreement, Parris also admitted that she continued to direct the adoption agency\u2019s clients to work with her alleged co-conspirator Dorah Mirembe, after knowing that Mirembe caused clients of the adoption agency to provide false information to the U.S. State Department for the purpose of misleading it in its adjudication of visa applications.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to court documents, in a second scheme, after alleged co-conspirator Margaret Cole, the adoption agency\u2019s Executive Director, learned that clients of the adoption agency determined they could not care for one of the two Polish children they were set to adopt, Parris and her co-conspirator took steps to transfer the Polish child to Parris\u2019s relatives, who were not eligible for intercountry adoption.<\/span><\/p>\n

In her plea agreement, Parris also admitted that after the child was injured and hospitalized, Parris agreed with her co-conspirator to conceal their improper conduct from the U.S. State Department in an attempt to continue profiting from these adoptions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Parris pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and commit visa fraud in connection with the Uganda scheme, and conspiracy to defraud the United States in connection with the Poland scheme. <\/span><\/p>\n

She is scheduled to be sentenced on March 9.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Trial against Cole is scheduled to commence on Feb. 7, 2022.\u00a0Mirembe remains at large.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you believe you are a victim of this offense, please visit\u00a0https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/criminal-fraud\/victim-witness-program<\/a>\u00a0or call (888) 549-3945.<\/span><\/p>\n

The FBI\u2019s Cleveland Field Office is investigating the case.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Texas woman who was a program manager at an Ohio-based international adoption agency plead guilty Wednesday in federal court in Ohio to bribing Ugandan officials to adopt Ugandan and Polish children,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-department-of-justice"],"yoast_head":"\nTexas Woman Guilty of Setting Up Illegal Adoptions from Uganda and Poland, Bribing Officials<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Texas woman who was a program manager at an Ohio-based international adoption agency plead guilty Wednesday in federal court in Ohio to bribing Ugandan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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