Internet twins broker arrested in FBI swoop

The woman at the centre of the internet adoption case involving a British couple was today 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, yesterday, according to the FBI’s office in San Diego, California.

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

Johnson, formerly of 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 (€5,500) to Johnson’s A Caring Heart service to adopt the girls, Kiara and Keyara. 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 (€11,070) 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. The twins were returned to the United States.

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 said investigators 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.

Investigators said they would seek to extradite Johnson to San Diego.