U.S. immigration law requires adoptive parents to fly out to pick up the child. In this case, the indictment states Focus on Children workers discouraged parents from flying to Samoa but instead told them to pick up children at the nearest U.S. consulate in Aukland, New Zealand. Persistent parents were told they couldn't go to Samoa because of an outbreak of German measles or that a hurricane had just struck.

Thomas Depenbrock, special agent in charge for the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Diplomatic Security, called the case "unusually cruel" and a "soulless and heartless misuse of trust."

Federal officials said the agency received about $13,000 for each single adoption and $20,000 for two adoptions. While many siblings were adopted together, Tolman said, there were some cases where siblings were adopted by different families.

In all, federal officials say Scott and Karen Banks, along with some of their employees, made hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits from the adoptions.

Also indicted were Karalee Thornock, 34, of Tooele; Coleen Bartlett, 40, of Evanston, Wyo.; Julie Tuiletufuga, a Samoan citizen; Dan Wakefield, 70, a U.S. citizen in Apia, Samoa; and Tagaloa Ieti, 44, also a Samoan citizen. Tolman said international arrest warrants have been issued for Wakefield, Ieti and Tuiletufuga.

Scott and Karen Banks were arrested Thursday at the agency office in Wellsville, appeared in federal court and were released.

Rebecca Hyde, an attorney for Karen Banks and Focus on Children, said her client has been cooperative with investigators for months. "We're comfortable that Karen and Focus on Children have always been as ethical and conscientious as they possibly could be in organizing the adoptions that they have from Samoa," Hyde said.

According to the agency's Web site, they also provide adoptions in Brazil, Bulgaria, Guatemala, China, Haiti, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia and Ukraine. Tolman said so far the focus of the investigation has been on the adoptions out of Samoa but that focus may shift to other countries depending on what they find.

What remains in the indictments is a painful tangle of adoptive parents and birth parents in two countries trying to sort things out. Tolman said federal officials have worked to open channels of communication between the two groups. In some cases, he said children have been sent back to Samoa, at the expense of the adoptive parents. In other cases birth parents have decided to have their children remain in the United States.

The majority of children remain with their U.S. adoptive parents until things are resolved. State Department officials said the situation is now a civil matter, and that in order for Samoan parents to get their children back, they will have to take legal action. So far, the Samoan government has not officially asked for the children to be returned, they said.

The state Division of Child and Family Services has not taken in any Samoan children affected by the charges, spokeswoman Carol Sisco said Thursday.

The Utah Department of Human Services is responsible for licensing child-placing agencies and was aware of the investigation into Focus on Children, Sisco said. Now that official charges have been filed, the department will issue an immediate notice to revoke the organization's license, which was issued in August 2003.

All seven people face multiple charges of visa fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to commit human smuggling. If convicted, they face maximum sentences of 10 to 20 years for each count.

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Contributing: Angie Welling

E-mail: gfattah@desnews.com