AMREX:

Zakharova, Zasyatkin & Kellogg

    Tracy Kellogg took a cheap shot by bad mouthing us to Automne Heather. Her comments to Automne were obnoxious, without compassion and entirely self-serving.  She had some nerve.

    Then again, what else was new in the backstabbing world of international adoptions?  At the same time, Tracy proved our investigations had an impact on Amrex. Uncovering information about Amrex from public information and disseminating it to other interested parties had paid off.  The accumulative effect over the years was palpable. One revelation after another, a few  complaints to the MOE in Moscow, and one determined Russian attorney getting the truth out, put a damper both on Amrex’s free-for-all in Moscow, Alpharetta and Atlanta and on Sergey Zasyatkin and Marina Zakharova's housing boom.  It led to Amrex's demise.

    Tracy Kellogg could not hide the fact she had worked for a child-brokering organization whose bosses had no souls or consciences. It didn’t matter. Her paychecks, flush with PAP's money cleared.  What was it to her.  The money wasn't hers - just thousands of dollars ripped off from Amrex clients — and agencies. 

    Ethan’s death had repercussions for Amrex beyond Astrakhan.  Rumors of a class-action suit swirled, but came to naught.  Nobody can say for certain what has happened on the Russian end, although children were successfully placed children from Blagoveschensk in April 2006.  Amrex Russian facilitators were not paid.  We learned from a reliable source that Valiko Meunargia (Val from Moscow) works as Beacon House's accredited representative in Moscow.  Once the Amrex American flagship sank owners, Val took the helm of the Russian lifeboat.  Luckily for him, for Beacon House received its accreditation on January 28, 2008

    The Amrex empire began to crumble in spring 2006.  Its profile was greatly reduced. The phone numbers of two Amrex-founded companies, Transparent Systems and Hague Software, were disconnected. Hague’s incorporation was dissolved, soon followed by Transparent Systems. Websites were taken down or scaled back. Amrex’s employees were told to work from their homes. Its offices were moved from Alpharetta to Atlanta. Their telephone number, 678-393-7100, once answered by a real person, reverted to a voicemail system. By early 2007 the voicemail became a machine.  It became impossible to reach a living person.

    The first organization to report Amrex being out of business was the Atlanta Better Business Bureau. The Georgia Secretary of State’s office showed Amrex’s current “AR” was paid on May 22, 2006.  Sergey Zasyatkin was listed as its new registered agent.  He gave his (former) address as 298 Clipper Bay in Alpharetta, GA. Other entities, save Hague, were listed as active in 2006.

    International Advocates for Children , one of Amrex’s 501(c)(3) entities (formerly known as Inter-Country Adoption Congress) fees were paid on April 2.  By the end of 2006, though, IAC became World Initiatives for Orphans.  It  soon separated itself entirely from Amrex.  It became its own entity and kept a separate office at Hague in the Netherlands.

    Genesis Adoptions, their other 501(c)(3) organization also ceased to exist.  Lauren Bobis, a name associated with Genesis Adoptions for many years and its Executive Director, left the agency and clients high and dry once Amrex filed for Chapter 11.

Genesis’s next director, Lindsay Kirk-Gimblet, was unable to keep the hollowed- out organization afloat; it has since gone out of business, like every Amrex organization Zasyatkin created.

    It all officially imploded on September 21, 2006 when Sergey Zasyatkin declared Chapter 11.  A meeting at the Bankruptcy Court in Atlanta on Monday, October 23 had Amrex claiming $8,000 remained in its accounts.  Its member agencies (and by extension their clients) were owed over $2 million.

    The two other major creditors before Building Blocks Adoption Service, Inc. were the Mardocks’ International Family Services  and Genesis Adoptions. Documents from the Bankruptcy Court show BBAS was owed $240,100.  We learned from a credible source Denise had solicited clients for her Russian program even during this Amrex meltdown. She would never account the Amrex clients’ money — she would say Beacon House one minute, the next say Amrex, but the money could not be returned.  See further discussion of how Building Blocks is mishandling this issue.

    The biggest shock was Serg and Marina's divorce.  Serg’s Alpharetta home — 298 Clipper Bay — was placed on the market for a cool $549,900. The bank would later foreclose it.

    Marina Zakharova's home located in Atlanta at 1664 Lenox Road, was also on the market for $250,000 more — $799,900 to be exact.  At this time, she still owns it.

    A 341 update meeting took place on January 14, 2008, in Atlanta. In attendance were Sergey Zasyatkin, his attorney Rex Cornelison, the court-appointed interim trustee Mr. Jeffery K. Kerr and three ex-Genesis Adoption clients.  It was a puzzling meeting.  When asked where he lived, Serg gave his address as a strip mall!  Quite possibly a UPS store.  It was revealed the Amrex 401(k) plan was being terminated and the bankruptcy would be wrapped up within six months.  Any remaining Amrex documents would most likely be destroyed.

    Amrex and its mostly Russian employees will not reveal the names of their in-country Russian contacts. According to Mr. Kerr there were no records of these Russian contacts. This does not surprise us.  We firmly believe Amrex was “connected” somehow in Russia — and those connections are still strong.

    The worst thing learned at the 341 meeting was this:  The money was gone.  Period.  According to Mr. Kerr, large amounts of money had been flowing out of Amrex’s accounts in wire transfers to Russia.  Who was the fox in charge of guarding that hellhole hen coop?  The cost to even attempt to recover those transferred funds would start, according to Mr. Kerr, at $100,000. 

    Not surprising.  We’ve maintained more money was being sent back to Russia than was being kept in the United States.  We would further wager those monies were being laundered.

    At the same time, the clients learned at the 341 meeting, Marina Zakharova had paid back a $30,000 loan from Amrex in the form of a check.

Meanwhile, the children that Amrex professed to care so much about in Russia, Kazakhstan and Guatemala, live in cold misery.

Always being on the look out for updates on Sergey N Zasyatkin, Marina Zakharova (aka Mariz Bissette) and Tracy Kellogg, we’ve learned some more fun and outlandish information on all three.