Huge amounts of data in adoption-fraud case

A jury trial for owners and managers of a Utah-based international adoption agency accused of fraud involving Samoan children is expected to last about two months because of the "colossal amounts of information" in the case.

Federal prosecutors last week turned over two DVDs of information to defense attorneys for the seven defendants in the case against Focus on Children, assistant U.S. attorney Dustin Pead said at a Monday morning status conference.

The discs included some 30,000 pages of information, as well as audio and video interviews with an agency manager and an adoptive family who worked with the Wellsville-based nonprofit organization.

Owners Scott and Karen Banks, along with five of their employees, face a 135-count indictment that alleges the agency systematically misled birth parents in Samoa into signing away rights to their children while telling adoptive parents in the United States that the children had been abandoned and were orphans.

A trial date was to have been set Monday, but the extent of material in the case prompted U.S. Magistrate David Nuffer to postpone the scheduling, in order to allow defense attorneys time to go through the data. Monday's brief hearing also included discussion about hiring a court-appointed forensic analyst to manage the documents for the defense.

"Obviously, this case involves a huge number of documents and witnesses," said Rebecca Hyde, attorney for Karen Banks.

Focus on Children has placed an estimated 80 Samoan children from about 45 birth families with 60 adoptive families throughout the United States, according to prosecutors. As many as 12 adoptive families are in Utah, Pead said Monday.

Five of the defendants have pleaded not guilty to various charges of visa fraud, conspiracy to commit alien smuggling and money laundering. Two defendants are Samoan citizens and have not been served with legal papers. Because the United States has no extradition treaty with Samoa, Utah prosecutors are working informally with government officials in the South Pacific island to bring the two individuals to the United States, Pead said.

The next hearing in the case is scheduled for June 4. A trial date is expected to be set at that time.

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E-mail: awelling@desnews.com