US Treasury sanctions Ugandans accused of trafficking in illegal adoptions

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

The US Treasury announces sanctions against four Ugandans accused of being part of an adoption trafficking network. Two judges, as well as a lawyer and her partner and husband are hit by an asset freeze and ban on entry into the territory. A court case is also pending in the courts in the United States. The network targeted by these measures is accused of organizing the illegal adoption by American families of young Ugandans falsely presented as orphans.

Publicity

It is a well-organized adoption scam ring that the US administration is dismantling. Lawyer Dorah Mirembe is notably accused of having via intermediaries "  contacted vulnerable families in remote villages in Uganda  ", to "  withdraw  " their children, promising them that they would be sent "  to Kampala.  To receive an education with missionaries, before finally placing these children in a so-called "  orphanage  ", where American families were invited to come and adopt them.

In other cases, special education programs in the United States were promised. And this by having taken care before either to "  falsify  " the authorization documents, according to the Treasury, or to take advantage of the illiteracy of these parents to make them sign documents without their knowledge equivalent to an abandonment.

The lawyer is also accused of having "  facilitated the bribery of judges  " and other Ugandan officials  "to give a semblance of legality to these proceedings. Among these judges, Moses Mukiibi and Wilson Musalu Musene, both also under sanctions.

At the same time, the American justice announced to have indicted the lawyer and an American citizen for multiple frauds and money laundering. In addition to the sanctions, a criminal procedure is therefore underway to punish the perpetrators of this traffic which, according to the investigators, would have brought the network 900,000 dollars.

Several cases related to this network have hit the headlines in recent years. Including that of a couple of American parents who finally decided to return the child to his biological family after discovering the scam.

Newsletter Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

• Uganda
• United States

On the same subject

Coronavirus: concern is spreading to Uganda, so far preserved from the epidemic

Presidential election in Uganda: the economic obstacles of candidate Museveni