Tranda Wecker, the birth mother whose twins were caught up in a transatlantic adoption dispute, has been charged with fraud.

Hearings have begun to decide the custody of the 10-month-old twin girls who were adopted over the Internet, then sent back overseas to their birth parents.

Kiara and Keyara Wecker, the Internet twin girls once at the centre of a transatlantic custody battle, were back in the United States yesterday after spending most of their lives away from their natural parents.