Bankrupt adoption agency lists Lexus among its assets

Bankrupt adoption agency lists Lexus among its assets

Last Updated: Friday, July 17, 2009 | 11:25 AM ET Comments56Recommend38

CBC News

Laura Morrison says she and her husband paid Imagine Adoption more than $15,000 and are waiting to be united with their adopted daughter. (CBC)

An Ontario company specializing in international adoptions that went into receivership this week lists two luxury vehicles, including a $50,000 Lexus, as assets along with $500,000 in the bank, according to bankruptcy documents.

Kids Link International Adoption Agency, which runs Imagine Adoption, based in Cambridge, Ont., posted a bankruptcy notice on its website Monday. For the last two years, it had helped Canadians adopt children from Ethiopia, Ghana and Ecuador.

As many as 400 Canadian families who are waiting anxiously to find out when they will be united with their adopted children are listed as unsecured creditors in the documents, posted online through the appointed bankruptcy trustee, BDO Dunwoody.

The documents show the non-profit organization leased the Lexus from a Cambridge dealership and a Nissan Pathfinder worth $30,000 from a Toronto dealer.

Imagine Adoption executives Andrew Morrow, left, and Sue Hayhow, centre, are seen in this undated photo. (CBC)

The documents list $800,000 in fees collected from families — some of whom say they paid as much as $20,000 for an adoption.

The vehicles will be towed and returned to the leasing company, said Susan Taves, senior vice-president of BDO Dunwoody.

Taves said the adoption agency's board of directors recently started probing its finances and noticed irregularities. Sue Hayhow is the agency's executive director, while Andrew Morrow is listed as her partner in the company.

"A few of the board of directors say they saw some cheques that might have been personal in nature," Taves said.

'I just want to hold my baby'

The trustee must also sort out the future of some 40 Ethiopian children already matched to Canadian parents and living in a transition home in the country's capital, Addis Ababa.

Sharla Kostelyk's two adopted children are in that home. She said she and her husband are worried the children won't be cared for, so he is travelling from Edmonton to Ethiopia on Saturday.

"It's a terrible feeling to be halfway across the world and to know that your children are in danger," she told CBC News.

Chad and Laura Morrison of Winnipeg, who already have an adopted daughter, Sara, told CBC News they had paid the agency more than $15,000 and were waiting to be matched with a child from Ethiopia to complete their family.

"We have a five-year-old daughter who asks daily, 'When I am going to be a big sister? When is that baby coming?'" Laura Morrison said.

BDO Dunwoody said it will be sending notice to all families and creditors and families by Friday.

But Morrison said the money is the last thing on her mind.

"I don't care if we get the money back," she said. "I don't care. I just want to hold my baby. I just want my child."

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