{"id":7086,"date":"2019-08-30T11:32:30","date_gmt":"2019-08-30T11:32:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.againstchildtrafficking.org\/?p=7086"},"modified":"2019-08-30T11:32:30","modified_gmt":"2019-08-30T11:32:30","slug":"texas-woman-pleads-guilty-to-conspiracy-to-facilitate-adoptions-from-uganda-through-bribery-and-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/texas-woman-pleads-guilty-to-conspiracy-to-facilitate-adoptions-from-uganda-through-bribery-and-fraud\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas woman pleads guilty to conspiracy to facilitate adoptions from Uganda through bribery and fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Date: 2019-08-29<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Source: https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

A Texas woman who managed aspects of an international program at an Ohio-based adoption agency pleaded guilty today for her role in a scheme to corruptly facilitate adoptions of Ugandan children through bribing Ugandan officials and defrauding U.S. adoptive parents and the U.S. Department of State.<\/p>\n

Robin Longoria, 58, of Mansfield, Texas, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge William H. Baughman, Jr. of the Northern District of Ohio to one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), to commit wire fraud and to commit visa fraud. Sentencing is scheduled for January 8, 2020, before U.S. District Judge Christopher A. Boyko of the Northern District of Ohio.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe co-conspirators compromised protections for vulnerable Ugandan children and sought to undermine the State Department\u2019s visa screening process,\u201d said Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department\u2019s Criminal Division. \u201cThis case demonstrates how far-reaching the adverse consequences of corruption can permeate, and the Department\u2019s commitment to detecting and prosecuting it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis defendant has admitted to playing a part in a conspiracy in which judges and other court officials in Africa were paid bribes to corrupt the adoption process,\u201d said U.S. Attorney Justin Herdman of the Northern District of Ohio. \u201cWe are committed to pursuing justice for the adoptive parents and for all parties involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile adoptive families were financially and emotionally invested in the welfare of their future child, misrepresentations were made by Ms. Longoria and others to disguise bribe payments made to court officials in Uganda,\u201d said Special Agent in Charge Eric B. Smith of the FBI\u2019s Cleveland Field Office. \u201cWe are pleased Ms. Longoria has accepted responsibility for her role in facilitating an international adoption scam.\u201d<\/p>\n

As part of her guilty plea, Longoria admitted, among other things, that she and her co-conspirators agreed to, and did, cause bribes disquised as fees to be paid to an Uganda Agent. Longoria knew that these fees would and were used by the to pay bribes to court registrars and Ugandan High Court judges to corruptly influence the court registrars to assign particular cases to \u201cadoption-friendly\u201d judges and to corruptly influence the judges to grant the U.S. clients of the adoption agency the authority to bring the Ugandan children to the United States for the purpose of adoption. Longoria also admitted that she and her co-conspirators agreed to, and did, conceal these bribes from the adoption agency\u2019s U.S. clients. Further, Longoria admitted that she and her co-conspirators agreed to, and did, create false documents for submission to the U.S. State Department to mislead it in its adjudication of visa applications for the Ugandan children being considered for adoption.<\/p>\n

If you believe you are a victim of this offense, please visit\u00a0https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/criminal-fraud\/victim-witness-program<\/a>\u00a0or call (888) 549-3945.<\/p>\n

The FBI\u2019s Cleveland Field Office is investigating the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Chelsea Rice and Trial Attorney Jason Manning of the Criminal Division\u2019s Fraud Section are prosecuting the case.<\/p>\n

The Fraud Section is responsible for investigating and prosecuting all FCPA matters. Additional information about the Justice Department\u2019s FCPA enforcement efforts can be found at\u00a0www.justice.gov\/criminal\/fraud\/fcpa<\/a>.
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Date: 2019-08-29 Source: https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/ A Texas woman who managed aspects of an international program at an Ohio-based adoption agency pleaded guilty today for her role in a scheme to corruptly facilitate adoptions of Ugandan children through bribing Ugandan officials and defrauding U.S. adoptive parents and the U.S. Department of State. Robin Longoria, 58, of Mansfield,… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7086"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7086"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7087,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7086\/revisions\/7087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}