Va. Beach agency in dispute over adoption of Ukrainian sisters
Va. Beach agency in dispute over adoption of Ukrainian sisters
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The Roanoke Times
© September 12, 2009
By Jorge Valencia
A Virginia Beach-based exchange program is involved in a custody dispute over three Ukrainian sisters hosted by the program.
Larry Vander Maten, a developer from Florida, hosted the sisters through the Frontier Horizons program since early June. He refused to send the sisters home as scheduled on Aug. 31, saying one of the sisters had the flu.
Authorities removed the girls from his Florida mansion on Thursday after a federal judge ordered they be returned.
The sisters - orphans age 9, 11 and 13 - appeared to be in good condition when the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office picked them up at Vander Maten’s house and transferred them to the custody of Frontier Horizons.
Frontier Horizons officials did not return requests for comment Thursday. But the organization’s president, Vincent Rosini, said Wednesday that Vander Maten’s refusal to return the children was jeopardizing the program, which brings about 90 children at a time to the United States and Canada.
Vander Maten said in a phone interview Thursday he met the sisters on a mission trip with his foundation, Ten Talents, which has sent medical and orphan aid to Sri Lanka and Zambia. He said he and his wife planned to adopt the three sisters.
He paid Frontier Horizons $3,500 for each child’s arrangements to visit the United States in early June, he said, and he had agreed with their legal guardian that he would adopt them or change their visas to student status once they were in the United States. At Frontier Horizons’ request, he said, he donated $13,000 to the organization over the summer.
In August, Vander Maten said, Frontier Horizons officials told him the sisters would have to travel to Ukraine before they could visit him and his family’s 10,000-square-foot house again. He said he thought it was a ruse to wrangle money from him and his family.
“I think that when the sisters got here, the people in Ukraine realized I’m a wealthy American,” he said. “They wanted their cut. They wanted their money.”
Vander Maten is a nursing home developer who has proposed a $200 million renovation to Roanoke County’s former Explore Park.
The Seminole County Sheriff’s Office said that a federal judge in Orange County, Fla., ordered Thursday morning that the sisters be turned over to Frontier Horizons so they could return to Ukraine
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