Authorities said 57-year-old Orson Mozes was arrested in Miami Beach Monday. Orson Mozes is accused of operating an adoption scam that cost his victims more than a million dollars.

Mozes was captured Monday after an anonymous tip from someone who saw his picture on the 'America's Most Wanted' Web site. He would have been featured on the nationally televised show next month.

Mozes ran a business called adoption international program from his Montecito home. Santa Barbara County investigators issued a warrant for his arrest earlier this year.

The 62 felony counts of fraud represent each victim in this case.

Two of those victims are Dawn De Lorenzo and her husband, who live in New Jersey. Dawn said she and her husband used Mozes' adoption service after unsuccessful fertility treatments.

Court of Appeals denies ex-wife’s claim to back-due spousal and child support

Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce Dudley reported Thursday that more than $300,000 in money seized from Orson Mozes, a Montecito man guilty of adoption fraud, would be distributed to the 59 victims of his crimes. 

Only July 2, 2009, Mozes pleaded guilty to 17 counts of theft by false pretenses in bilking clients out of more than $1 million through his Adoption International Program. 

According to investigators, Mozes promised the same child to adoptive parents. Victims also claimed he charged them to “hold” a foreign child for them, only to be told later that the child was not available. 

As part of his sentence, Mozes was sent to prison and released any rights that he had to more than $300,000 that was seized at the time of his arrest, according to the District Attorney’s Office. 

NAC Statement

Nordic Adoption Council, NAC, statement in accordance with the conference in Reykjavik in September 2023

Every second year, the Nordic Adoption Council (NAC) holds Nordic meetings and an open day conference, which is open to anyone who is interested in the field of intercountry adoptions. This year the conference was arranged by the Icelandic Adoption Society in Reykjavik, Iceland, on September 15-16, 2023. The theme of the open day conference was "Adoption - a lifelong process” with a focus on approaching adoption as a continuing process throughout life and highlighting the importance of viewing this process from multiple angles.

Among the speakers were Ólöf Ásta Farestveit, General Director of the National Agency for Children and Families in Iceland, Rut Sigurðardóttir, social worker and family therapist from Iceland, Heiða Þorleifsdóttir, adoptive mother, Bergdís Wilson, a psychologist, David Asplund, cultural anthropologist from Sweden, Kristin Gärtner Askeland, a clinical psychologist and senior researcher at the Regional Centre for Child and Youth Mental Health and Child Welfare, RKBU Vest in Norway, Anna Guwert, case officer at the PAS-department, and Anna Taxell, department head of adoptions, both from Adoptionscentrum in Sweden. A discussion panel with adult adoptees was also part of the program.

NAC open day conference statement below focuses on eight key commitments where the Nordic Adoption Council has played an important role over the years to develop legal certainty in intercountry adoptions.The statement highlights the commitment of Nordic adoption organizations to ensure that intercountry adoptions are carried out with the utmost consideration for the child's well-being and in compliance with ethical and legal standards. It also aims to highlight the risk of not facilitating an international adoption when needed and, thus, limiting the child’s right to the best possible outcome.

4th Meeting of the Special Commission on the Hague Convention

NORDIC ADOPTION COUNCIL July 2015 Birgitta Löwstedt

4TH SPECIAL COMMISSION 8-12 June 2015

"20 years of the 1993 Hague Convention”

The objective of the 4th Special Commission (SC) was to review the practical operation of the 1993 Hague Convention; in the light of the 20 years that have passed since its birth. The discussions included presentations by some experts and some 'round table' sessions to introduce certain topics. After each presentation and round table sessions, there was time for discussions, questions and comments. Special for this year: A preparatory meeting was held on Saturday 6th June, for new States parties to the convention and for those States seriously considering ratification of, or accession to, the Convention. 19 States participated, with totally 33 experts. It was very successful and appreciated by participants.

THE NORDIC APPROACH TO INTERCOUNTRY ADOPTION

is based on the rights of the child and higher ethical standards in intercountry adoption

The Nordic Adoption Council’s Conference 2009 on intercountry Adoption took place in Iceland from 3th to 6th of September. Present at the Conference were all of the NAC-members, who represent all but one of the Nordic organizations, i.e. the organizations from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Denmark, accredited to work with intercountry adoptions plus parents organizations from some of the countries. The Conference agreed upon the following joint global venture in intercountry adoption context, based on the ambition to put children’s rights and higher ethics at the forefront of the agenda when it comes to practices and basic rules in intercountry adoption.

The background is well known: intercountry adoption is under increasing pressure due to the fact, that more and financially strong receiving countries have dramatically increased their number of approved families for adoption, while many of the traditional countries of origin have either put restrictions or barriers upon intercountry adoption or have closed up their intercountry adoption programmes completely due to better living conditions in the country, increased domestic adoption or - in worst case - excessive pressure from potential adoptive families resulting in scandals involving trafficking.

The Nordic organizations have – globally - the longest experience in mediating in intercountry adoption due to the fact, that intercountry adoption became a recognized social and legal phenomenon in the Nordic countries already some years after the Second World War. At the conference celebrated in Iceland, the Nordic Adoption Organizations – many of whom have celebrated 40 years’ anniversary - agreed on the following standpoints to secure intercountry adoption processes based on ethics and responsibility:

Ask the EU

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https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=HX4SjqFECXHEla8y&fbclid=IwAR19P8ONw1SBDaDtyorXiRn_3WgkcdyP23IE1v1ovQ02zhdH_peS6yOKnIo&v=1q3971KJzNM&feature=youtu.be

The 1993 Hague Convention on Protection of Children
and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption

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