Former adoption director pleads guilty to federal charges

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Former adoption director pleads guilty to federal charges

By Diane Turbyfill

Published: Friday, January 30, 2015 at 17:44 PM.

A Belmont woman has pleaded guilty to making false statements to keep an international adoption agency in business.

Mary Mooney, former executive director of International Adoption Guides Inc., pleaded guilty in federal court earlier this month. She admitted to making false and fraudulent statements to the Council on Accreditation.

The accreditation allowed the business to complete adoptions in several countries between 2006 and 2009.

Mooney, 57, of Belmont, was one of four people charged in the scandal nearly a year ago.

A co-defendant, Alisa Bivens of Gastonia, has already pleaded guilty, as has James Harding of Lawrenceville, Ga.

According to the U.S. Justice Department, Mooney intentionally failed to list Bivens as an employee and failed to disclose Harding as the functional director and head of the company.

Those positions would have affected the company’s accreditation, and hiding those facts allowed adoptions that may not have been granted.

Bivens pleaded guilty in August to her part in the misdeeds. She admitted to creating adoption contracts signed by orphanages that could not properly give children up for adoption because they never cared for the children, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

In many cases the children lived with family members before being adopted by American parents. Bivens also admitted that she and others paid bribes to two Ethiopian officials to complete fraudulent adoptions.

One of the foreign officials was a teacher who accepted money and other valuables to provide confidential medical information for the children.

The other foreign official, who headed up a ministry for women and children, received money and all-expenses-paid travel in exchange for approving falsified adoption applications.

Mooney, Bivens and Harding have all pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.

Charges remain against Haile Mekonnen who ran adoption programs in Ethiopia.

You can reach Diane Turbyfill at 704-869-1817 and Twitter.com/GazetteDiane.

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