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Warrant issued for alleged adoption scammer : Man supposedly took
thousands of dollars from 62 people
KATHLEEN STINSON, NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER


Orson Mozes is shown in a 1990s photo .
COURTESY PHOTO


Joe and Dawn De Lorenzo, of Woodbridge, N.J., were never able to
adopt a child through Adoption International Program. A warrant for
the arrest of the company's owner , Orson Mozes, has been issued.
COURTESY PHOTO



April 22, 2008 7:19 AM

The Santa Barbara District Attorney's office has issued an arrest
warrant for a Santa Barbara man who allegedly bilked 62 people out of
thousands of dollars in an adoption scam.

Former School House Road resident Orson Mozes, 56, is wanted on
felony counts of 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.

Alleged victims accuse Mr. Mozes of promising them the "best" kids --
primarily from Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Russia -- through his and his
wife Christen Brown's agency, Adoption International Program.
Allegations concern taking victims' 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. "Many victims state that upon contact with Mozes, they were
told they needed to immediately set up a FedEx account and then send
an agency fee, generally between $7,000 and $11,000, in order
to 'hold' the specific child and remove the child's picture from the
Web site, so that it would not be available to other prospective
adoptive parents."

Victims said they were directed to send money via FedEx to Mr. Mozes
at his School House Road address, the declaration states. In return,
victims received a packet of forms and contracts from AIP by e-mail.

According to the District Attorney's office, 66 percent of the
victims in the investigation were not able 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."

"Nearly all the victims who were still in the adoption process with
Mozes/AIP found themselves left with nothing, when Mozes
suddenly 'disappeared' in June 2007," the declaration states.



Laura Cleaves, supervising investigator for the District Attorney's
Office, who opened the case in 2005, said she has been in contact
with the FBI and Interpol to try to track down Mr. Mozes.

"I'm hopeful we are going to apprehend him and I'd like to do it
sooner than later," Ms. Cleaves said.

The arrest warrant does not name Ms. Brown.

Two alleged victims, Joe and Dawn De Lorenzo, of Woodbridge, N.J.,
were never able to adopt a child through Mr. Mozes' adoption agency,
despite giving him more than $75,000 and making three successive
attempts to adopt a child beginning in April 2006, Mrs. De Lorenzo
told the News-Press.

Mr. Mozes "is an emotional rapist," Mrs. De Lorenzo said. "He has
taken more than words can say. He's taken three 'sons' from us,"
referring to the infants she and her husband tried to adopt through
Adoption International Program.

Mrs. De Lorenzo said she and her husband gave Mr. Mozes money
to "hold" a child for them until arrangements could be made to travel
to the foreign country to go to court. In December 2006, she said Mr.
Mozes told them suddenly and with no explanation "your son is no
longer available." By that time, she said they had the child's
pictures up all over their house, told family and friends, and had
heavily invested their hopes.

"We were dreaming about the child and had a nursery up," she said.

Mr. Mozes then suggested they "hold" another child -- and wire money
to do so -- which they did.

Court records state that Mr. Mozes provided detailed instructions to
numerous victims on "how to wire money, and in some cases instructed
victims to lie on the forms stating the purpose of the funds being
wired."

Mrs. De Lorenzo said she was led to believe the foreign country was
corrupt. She said they also continued to cooperate, in part, because
they had many thousands of dollars invested.

In February 2007, the De Lorenzos flew to Kazakhstan to try to adopt
the second child.

She said someone connected to the adoption agency met them at the
airport to collect the latest installment -- $10,000 in cash. She
said the girl who met them insisted they give her the money in the
restroom where there were no cameras, which they did.

Next, they flew to a city to "bond" with the child, as is required by
Kazakhstan law. Bonding involves meeting with the child for two hours
a day for two weeks at the orphanage. During this time, she said Mr.
Mozes forced them to stay in an apartment at a cost of $175 a day.
They were not allowed to stay in a hotel.

Mrs. De Lorenzo said she thinks the orphanage was in "cahoots" with
Mr. Mozes -- how else could she have gotten the child's pictures?

She said she had been vocal in questioning Mr. Mozes' methods and
felt that he was not happy with her for that reason.

"On the 10th day of bonding, we were brought into the office and told
the baby's mother reappeared," she said. "We had just thrown a
birthday for the child (the day before). I was very public on the
blogs and I believe he purposely told the orphanage director to say
that to break my heart."

So ready were the De Lorenzos for a child, they agreed to try a third
time.

They went through the bonding process and set up a court date, she
said. The court granted the adoption on the condition they wait 17
days to allow for objections. During this time, the child's mother
objected, although she had previously abandoned him, according to
Mrs. De Lorenzo.

They went to court three more times to fight the objection, but
finally had to return to the United States to continue their
employment.

After returning home, she said they received a letter written in
Russian, which the couple had to pay to have translated.

The letter said the case was closed because they had failed to show
up to court on the appointed day. They had understood someone was
handling the matter there for them.

Mrs. De Lorenzo said she next told Mr. Mozes she was upset and
planned to turn him in to the authorities, whereupon he "skipped
town," she said. Sometime later, she apparently came across Mr. Mozes
on the Web site Match.com, on which he stated his "turn-on" was power.

"I think he got a kick out of manipulating people's emotions and
having power to control such a large part of their destiny," Mrs. De
Lorenzo said.

e-mail: kstinson@newspress.com

I emailed this reporter and will be interviewed today about our adoption story.