Woman in internet adoption charged with fraud

THE woman at the centre of the internet adoption case involving a British couple is facing multiple fraud charges after being arrested by FBI agents in Washington.

Tina Johnson was arrested at her home in the Seattle suburb of Maple Valley, Washington, on Thursday.

Two children, both under the age of six, were found in the home and placed in protective care.

Johnson, originally from San Diego, was at the centre of the internet adoption case involving twin girls who were born in 2000. A Californian couple claimed they had paid $6,000 to Johnson’s A Caring Heart service to adopt the girls, Kimberley and Belinda. They said the twins’ birth mother, Tranda Wecker of Missouri, took the girls for a visit and never returned.

But an international custody battle ensued when Judith and Alan Kilshaw claimed they had paid Johnson $12,000 to adopt the girls, who they brought back to their home in Buckley, north Wales.

The children were later removed by social services and the Kilshaws, who now live in Chester, failed in a legal bid to win custody.

Wecker and the girls’ father, Aaron Wecker, each sought to regain custody of the twins while pursuing a divorce. In December, a judge in St Louis terminated their parental rights. The court is working to find a permanent home for the girls.

The FBI believe Johnson defrauded multiple victims over a five-year period, taking thousands of dollars from people in the United States and abroad. She apparently never completed an actual adoption, the agency said.