Holt to Announce Appeal of Ruling to Compensate Deported Adoptee

Holt Children’s Services will explain its decision to appeal a recent court ruling ordering the agency to compensate an adoptee for his botched adoption in a press conference on Thursday.

In a press release on Tuesday, the adoption agency said some media companies have been reporting malicious and one-sided assertions and that it would like to express its position based on objective facts. 

The Seoul Central District Court earlier this month ordered the Seoul-based agency to pay Adam Crapser, also known by his Korean name Shin Song-hyuk, 100 million won, or around 75-thousand U.S. dollars, in damages for a suit he had filed against Holt and the South Korean government in 2019.

The court said the agency had failed in its duty as the adoptee's guardian to confirm the acquisition of U.S. citizenship following his 1979 adoption, which eventually led to his deportation. It, however, did not recognize state responsibility.

While Crapser’s biological parents were alive prior to his adoption, his birth had not been registered, making it possible at the time for the agency to register him as an orphan and therefore eligible for international adoption.

Crapser was subsequently abandoned by two sets of adoptive parents following abuse and was unable to properly apply for citizenship, leading to his deportation back to South Korea in 2016.