Alleged scam victims speak out

KATHLEEN STINSON, NEWS-PRESS

STAFF WRITER
May 1, 2008 12:00 AM

Seventeen victims across the country in

the case of a Santa Barbara man who
allegedly bilked more than 100 people
out of thousands of dollars in an
adoption scam have asked the News-
Press to tell their stories in hopes of
improving the chances the suspect will
be caught.

Former School House Road resident Orson Mozes, 56, is wanted on

felony counts of allegedly taking money under false pretenses and grand
theft by use of the Internet, according to an arrest warrant filed March
27 in Santa Barbara County Superior Court by the District Attorney's
Office.

Alleged victims accuse Mr. Mozes of promising them the "best" kids --
primarily from Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Russia -- through his agency,
Adoption International Program. Allegations concern taking money and
then not delivering.

"All victims reported they contacted Mozes after viewing specific available
children whose photos were posted by Mozes/AIP on Internet Web sites,"
according to court documents obtained by the News-Press.

According to the District Attorney's Office, 66 percent of the victims in

the investigation were unable to adopt any child through Mr. Mozes and
AIP. Another 30 percent were "only able to adopt after several
heartbreaking, expensive and lengthy referrals (of children). This
investigation could only locate three to four families from 2004 to 2007
who successfully adopted their first referral and in a timely manner."

Since publication of the first News-Press story on April 22, seventeen

alleged victims have contacted the paper. They communicate with each
other via "Stop Orson Mozes AIP" on Yahoo Groups.

Mr. Mozes' whereabouts are unknown.

 An e-mail from one of
these alleged victims,
Ann Young, to other
victims in the case
states, "If anyone does
any communicating to
the media, or has
connections to the
media, we as a group
stand united and will
speak of our
experiences. Our stories
and our resolve can
help prevent future
innocent adoptive parents from the types of crimes that were perpetrated
upon us. Speaking out puts people like Orson Mozes ... who run
adoption agencies with illegal and unethical practices on notice."

Another of alleged victim is Candy Bushouse, of Kalamazoo, Mich. In

November 2004, Ms. Bushouse said she saw a photo of an 8- to 9-
month-old girl from Kazakhstan on the Web site, www.precious.org. This
site showed photos of children available through various adoption
agencies, including AIP.

Ms. Bushouse said she contacted Mr. Mozes, who told her to send an
"agency fee" of $12,850 to him at his School House Road address in
Santa Barbara. He also instructed her to send another check for $5,000
to someone in Kazakhstan to "hold" the child. She said the money was
sent to a named person, not a government agency.

She said she had previously adopted a male child through another
agency and so had her paperwork or dossier required by the U.S.
Government completed. She said the adoption in that case had taken a
total of nine months start to finish.

Ms. Bushouse said she hoped to travel soon to Kazakhstan to adopt the
young girl for whom she had paid a hold fee so that no other family could
adopt her. However, she waited for months to get the clearance to begin
the process in Kazakhstan from Mr. Mozes.

"He really has a temper -- he would scream at me and hang up on me,"

Ms. Bushouse said.

She said sometime during this time, Mr. Mozes called her to say the girl
she had held was gone and offered no explanation. She agreed to hold
another child.
Some months after that, she contacted a couple in Kazakhstan who
checked on the second child referral. They e-mailed her back that the
child was no longer there.

Ms. Bushouse said when she questioned Mr. Mozes about it, he said the
couple was lying, but later admitted that was the case.

In March 2006, Mr. Mozes got a letter of invitation for her to travel and
begin the adoption process -- more than a year after she first contacted
AIP in November 2004.

"When you're over there (Kazakhstan), you're almost helpless -- you have
no clue if the interpreter" is being honest, Ms. Bushouse said.

She said she thinks Mr. Mozes's crime is that he charged too much for
everything.

"All the costs were inflated," she said.

Ms. Bushouse said when she arrived at the airport in Kazakhstan, Mr.
Mozes required her to pay "close to $8,000" for her lodging, which was an
eight to nine-week stay in an apartment while she went to court.

She said the woman who lived next door to her at the apartment spoke
English and told her the apartment cost $200 a month including heat.
She said she nearly froze in another apartment Mr. Mozes provided on
the way back because the heat kept going on and off.

"I had to threaten to take pictures of the apartment to the U.S. Embassy
to get a warmer apartment," Ms. Bushouse said.

She said the adoption cost just under $50,000, about $13,000 more than
her other adoption.

Alleged victims Ann and Chris Young, of Calverton, N.Y., contacted AIP in
2005.

Mrs. Young said Mr. Mozes told her to FedEx $12,850 as an "agency fee"
to his address on School House Road to "hold" a six-month-old child.

Mrs. Young said it took six months to get her paperwork done. The
United States requires all those who adopt, including those adopting
overseas, to prove their fitness through interviews, F.B.I. fingerprints, tax
records and tax statements.
Ms. Bushouse explained the reason many people prefer international
adoptions is because they are "closed" and the birth parents cannot come
back and contact the child.

She said while she was waiting for approval paperwork from the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security before traveling to Kazakhstan, she
saw the child she had paid Mr. Mozes to hold on a blog that said the
child had been adopted by another family.

"He would put a beautiful picture of a Gerber baby up on the Web site"
and in at least one case, she said, she knew that two people paid to have
the child "held" for them.

"Mr. Mozes' crime was promising us this child would be ours and that
none of his other clients would be able to adopt the child once she was
held, and taking our money," Mrs. Young said.

She said she was able to adopt through AIP after losing multiple referrals
she had "held."

Ms. Bushouse said they stayed with Mr. Mozes ultimately because they
had too much money invested to start over with another agency.

"I had wanted to bail out, but after investing too much money, you can't
afford to back out and start over paying fees," she said. "It just takes too
much time and too much money to change to another agency."

Several of the victims filed a civil lawsuit in January 2008 in

Pennsylvania against Mr. Mozes, alleging violations of the Racketeer
Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act.

Any person having information about the whereabouts of Mr. Mozes may
contact Laura Cleaves, supervising investigator with the Santa Barbara
District Attorney's Office, at 805-737-7885.

e-mail: kstinson@newspress.com