The 

“International Concern For 

Children’s Fund”

 

     On June 23, 2000 Denise Hubbard and Richard J. Marco, Jr. incorporated another non-profit company with the Ohio Secretary of State — the International Concern for Children Fund, Inc.

     What was the purpose this organization? Was it to aid the orphanages in Bulgaria, as claimed?  Or was there another purpose?

    We don’t know, but we have our suspicions.  

    For one thing, the name “International Concern for Children Fund, Inc.” is strikingly similar to two legitimate adoptive parent support groups.

    The first is “Concern for Children,” founded in 1977 as a support group.  It is based in Parma Heights, Ohio, far from Medina.

    According to its homepage, it too is an Ohio non-profit, charitable organization, “assisting and educating those interested in international adoption … and assisting children in need in Latin America.” 

    CFC sponsors Culture Camps and solicits donations from its members for “medical supplies, baby needs and children’s clothing for the orphanages in Latin America.”

    They emphasize that they are not an adoption agency but a group who helps families wishing to complete an independent adoption, acting as a “liason between the parents and the foreign source in a limited number of countries,” primarily Colombia, where they have been helping out for over 20 years, and El Salvador, where they attempted to set up a pilot program.

    The second legitimate adoption organization is International Concerns for Children, Inc. Like CFC, ICCI is not an adoption agency.

    According to its website, it is “a charitable and educational organization who has volunteers.”  These volunteers work to inform PAPs about waiting children in the USA and foreign countries, provide current information on international adoption issues and “counsel families considering international adoption.”

    They DO NOT directly place children with families yet offer a “current monthly updated information on reputable, ethical and proven intercountry adoption agencies.”  This report is called Report on Intercountry Adoption and it is worth ordering if you are beginning an inter-country adoption.

    They are members of the JCICS and the North American Council on Adoptable Children.

     ICCI was established in 1979 as a tax-exempt not-for-profit.  Its head office is located in Boulder, Colo., far away from Ohio.

    Both CFC and ICCI have good reputations in the American adoption community. We wonder why Denise Hubbard chose the close-enough name of “International Concern for Children Fund, Inc.” for her own “charitable” foundation. 

    The names of these organizations are too similar as not to deliberately cause confusion to those looking for international adoption information. It’s not at all unlike the way bucket-shop stock brokerage firms choose names like "J.T. Marlin" that are close enough to the names of well-known, more reputable companies in the industry in order to mislead potential clients.

    We were first made aware of ICCF,Inc. in September 2000 from this email to the Corrigans: 

From:  “bbadoption”bbadoption@msn.com

To:   bbadoption@msn.com

Sent:  Tuesday, August 22, 2000 6:59 PM

Subject:  August 22

Dear Parents:

I am writing this note to advise all of you that I will be out of the country starting August 23 until September 4.  Wendy, Lori, Sandy and Debbie will be here to assist you with your adoption needs.  In my absence, referrals, court dates and adoption processes will still occur.  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact one of the young ladies above.

Please note that Debbie will be in the office to handle all incoming and outgoing mail as well as answering the main office number.  Wendy can be reached at: adopteric@aol.com or by phone 330-725-0414.  Sandi will handle all dossiers coming and going.  Sandi can be reached at sandi@bbas.org or by calling the office.  Lori will assist those of you who are going to Bulgaria.  Debbie can be reached at the main office number.

On another note, when sending donations, make sure you make the donations out to: International Concern For Children Fund, Inc or “ICCF.”  These can be mailed to P.O. Box 1028 Medina, OH 44258.

We appreciate the donations we receive.  Each little bit helps.  The current donations are going to orphanages that are in need of workers, heat, food, clothing and medical supplies.  All donations are tax deductible.

I cannot conclude this note without thanking all of you who attended the Building Blocks Annual Picnic and welcoming our foreign friends from Bulgaria.  It was a delight to see so many old and new faces!  But more of a delight to hold and love the children!

Have a great week!

Denise Hubbard

Executive Director

    When we received this, we wondered why  “ICCF” was founded.  We had not been told about it directly by Denise or Richard J. Marco Jr., Esq.  

   Two months after incorporating, Denise lost no time in hitting her clients up for “donations.”   

    On June 8, 2001, a year later, Denise and Richard J. Marco, Jr. placed this press release in the Akron Business Magazine to solicit more donations for the poor Bulgarian orphans.  Notice this was not an adoption or a charitable resource, but a business resource:

Overseas Adoption Services Seek Parents and Supporters

Building Blocks Adoption Service, Inc. (BBAS) is an Ohio not for profit international adoption agency located in Medina, Ohio.

Denise Hubbard, founder of BBAS, started in 1997 with the adoption of her daughter, Emily from the Russian Federation. The agency currently assists the many families in need of becoming a forever family through adoption.  BBAS began processing adoptions through Russia, and since have grown to process adoptions through Guatemala, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria and Kazakhstan.  Soon we hope to be working within China.

The staff consists of adoptive parents or individuals who have been affected by adoption or a loss of a child.  The goal has always been to help the children in need to find forever families.  There are several waiting children immediately available who need placement with loving families.  These children currently reside in several orphanages in Eastern Europe.

BBAS also works closely with orphanages overseas to provide for the needs of children who are not adoptable.  We accomplish this through our sister organization International Concern for Children Fund Inc. (ICCF), a not for profit humanitarian agency which is headed by Attorney Richard Marco of Marco, Marco and Bailey.

ICCF has provided cribs, beds, linens, food heat, electricity, employment of caretakers and physicians, medical care, medical supplies and medications as well as play ground equipment and maintenance to buildings overseas. ICCF and BBAS also bring Christmas gifts to over 600 orphans a year in the Republic of Bulgaria.

If you would like to donate to ICCF to assist with the every day needs of children or to learn more about our organizations, please contact the office at 330 425-5521.

    Another mention of ICCF, Inc. as BBAS “humanitarian aide [sic] organization” is in BBAS’s 2001 information pack:

Humanitarian Aide

BBAS donates part of your program fee to our humanitarian aide organization ICCF, Inc. (International Concern for Children Fund, Inc).  This agency provides food, clothing, medical supplies and maintenance to orphanages, surgeries for children in need of immediate cosmetic procedures, educational tools, and most of all, employment for caretakers, doctors, and maintenance workers to provide a quality of life for all the children residing in the orphanages overseas.

    This is where the alarm bells start going off.

    BBAS’s program fee in 2001 was $3,000.  The program fee is non-refundable. Shouldn’t a client have a choice as to where “a portion” of their $3,000 BBAS program fee was going?  It is, after all, their money. 

    And “donations” implies that the person doing the donating has a choice in the matter. This isn’t a donation, this is extortion. Very gentle extortion, but extortion all the same.

    Most pointedly, if an unspecified portion of the $3,000 was going to be “donated,” BBAS was admitting that they were charging more than necessary. 

    Why not simply cut your fees and urge clients to donate of their own free will? Oh, that’s what an honest adoption agency would do. BBAS is more sophisticated than that.

    In September 2001 when we came upon the ICCF, Inc. website, we printed out a copy.  It appears to have been up and running since June 2001.

    The copy is classic D. Hubbard sales talk.  The first page claims it was “started in 1999 at the invitation of government officials from Eastern Europe.”  These are “compassionate officials“ who “desperately want to help these children and are accepting any assistance offered.”  They are also trying to make life “a little better for the many children in need.”

    A later paragraph is more specific: “ICCF was established in 1999 by Building Blocks Adoption Service, Inc. at the invitation of the Bulgarian government officials who sought their expertise to help overcome mounting problems in the country’s orphanages.”

    The photos on the page were of Bulgarian orphanages and children (I swear one of the little boys in one of the photos looks like one we saw in the video of Anguel in Burgas for the Christmas toy donation drive).

    Under “Who We Are” we finally learned ICCF is BBAS's organization:

ICCF is a new organization that has branched from its sister organization and main support, Building Blocks Adoption Service, Inc.  The staff of Building Blocks believes in providing humanitarian aide to all adoptable and non-adoptable children in the world.  To this end, Building Blocks works closely with ICCF to ensure appropriate funding and guidance for the programs involved.

    What Denise failed to mention is that ICCF was founded by Building Blocks, its funding came (at least in part) from unwitting BBAS clients and its address was that of Building Blocks Adoption Service.  Any and all monies collected might should have been sent directly to BBAS.

     The ICCF website claimed  the main donators to the organization are “adoptive families, churches and the help, assistance and donations of people just like you!”

     It went into broad sketches of the work ICCF, Inc. allegedly did for Bulgarian orphanages – accompanied by the photos.  

    Claims, with an accompanying photo, were made of the generous donations going towards “new play areas”, “newly painted, bright toddler beds sport lead free paint”, “Christmas presents are given to each child residing in several orphanages” and our  favorite caption and photo: “Large Muscle skills are encouraged in this bright, safe, room.”  [there’s that muscle skill stuff again!]

     Along the side of the “How You Can Help” were photos stating what items still needed to be purchased. Some captions read: “New washers and dryers are needed to provide clean, sanitary clothing for the many children residing in these institutions.  Funding for washers and dryers is desperately needed.” 

    This was the same pitch Denise used in July 1999 when she began the Bulgarian program. Hadn’t one washer or dryer been purchased for at least Kurjali? For Buzovgrad?  For Burgas?

    The next caption was for a new stove – it had to have been the kitchen in Buzovgrad Dorothy Blevins and I discussed at great length.  “A rusted non-functional stove occupies this kitchen that is always under water.  The kitchen is infested with mice and rats that slip through the cracks of the old building which houses the kitchen.”

    In June 2000, Bulgaria Online picked up an article from Agence France Presse, called “Orphanage of Horror in Bulgaria.” It described the Buzovgrad orphanage in the saddest and most heartbreaking of terms.  

    The administration had barely had enough money to feed the 70 orphans living there. “Terminal cases” were housed in building number 3.  The administrator at that time, Dr. Ivelina Panova, is depicted in her office calculating Buzovgrad’s mounting debts.

    The French embassy in Sofia, with the help of the Dannon company, donated 220 pounds of food for Easter. The Moroccan embassy had started a collection to “finance repairs to the orphanage’s kitchen.”  

    It went on to describe the Buzovgrad kitchen as having “cracked ceilings …and walls” which hadn’t been repaired “for the past 30 years.”  Dr. Panova told the reporter, “The kitchen causes all the infections,” while the year prior to that, “a dysentery epidemic killed one child.”

    The article ended with the story of two children with severe disabilities who, after being adopted by a French family, were now thriving.

    The only rats and mice slipping in were those trying to make a quick sale off of the kids in Buzovgrad.

    The final photo and caption was a plea for a refurbishment of the “plumbing system” so the children and caregivers could have clean drinking water.

    We ask: was that kitchen in Buzovgrad ever repaired? We heard the Spaniards had purchased a new refrigerator, but the kitchen may remain in deplorable condition as some clients claimed.

    We're happy to answer our own questions.  In 2003, an organization founded by an AIAA client DID raise money for the kitchen's repair.  The name of this organization is called Bright Futures Adoption Assistance Program.  We were delighted to find the following on their website, complete with photos - new photos of that kitchen, modernized, clean, bright, sanitized and ready to prepare food for the children in Buzovgrad.  Our very own Blevins family had a hand in the fundraising.

Buzovgrad Kitchen Project

Our featured project is the remodeling of the kitchen at the orphanage in Buzovgrad, Bulgaria. When we started this project, the kitchen was in such a state of disrepair that the health department had threatened to close it down.

The photos below show various places around the kitchen. At right is the team who worked on the project, including translators and drivers, as well as some of the staff and children.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this project, which has certainly helped to improve the lives of these children.

  At the time, other agencies were hard at work in Bulgarian orphanages – All God’s Children had “Hannah’s Room” in Buzovgrad, and Charity with Spence Chapin in Turgovishte.  Again, wouldn’t pooling their resources have helped more kids and more orphanages than one agency?  

    If, upon reading these pleas, you were moved to make a monetary donation towards ICCF’s Bulgarian orphanage improvement scheme, Denise made it real easy for you.  

All donations (financial, medical, clothing food, etc) are shipped to orphanages and pediatric orphanage hospitals…Our goal is to assist all of God’s orphan children to achieve a fulfilling life … For information about the International Concern for Children Fund, Inc. feel free to Call, Mail or Email:

INTERNATIONAL CONCERN FOR CHILDREN FUND, INC. c/o Building Blocks Adoption Service, Inc. P.O. Box 1028 Medina, Ohio USA 44258 (330) 725-5521.  denise@bbas.org

    And if you really, really, really wanted to make a donation right then and there, it was a mouse click away. 

If you would like to make a tax deductible monetary donation to ICCF, you may:

1.  Make your donation via ClickBank.  In cooperation with ClickBank, you may make your donation via MasterCard, Visa, American Express, Discover and various other payment methods via secure payment processing.  Simply select the amount you would like to donate in the box drop down below.

    This was where they crossed the line.

    It seems that Denise, in her haste to paste angel wings on her shoulders, had neglected one tiny step — registering  ICCF, Inc. as a 501 (c) (3) charity with the IRS.

   We learned this in March 2002, when we filed a Form 4506 with the IRS for the 990s (tax returns) and 1023 (application for 501(c) status) for both ICCF and BBAS. Those documents, if filed, could have helped shed some light on the organizations’ finances.

    The IRS replied April 20 with a form letter simply stating “We have no record this organization is a tax-exempt organization under 501(A) of the Internal Revenue Code by virtue of an approved application.”

    In other words, Denise had never filed a 1023 form to designate ICCF, Inc. as a tax-exempt organization. This meant donations to ICCF were not tax deductible, and she could not claim they were without violating the Tax Code.

    ICCF, Inc. was a non-profit organization in the state of Ohio, but not tax exempt.

    This claim of “tax deductible” was made twice.  Once in her August 2000 email and right there in public view on ICCF’s website.

    We let both the IRS’s Criminal Investigations Division and the Charitable Solicitations Unit of the Ohio Attorney General’s office know about this (since Denise, unsurprisingly, had similarly failed to make the registration at the state level required under Section 1716 of the Ohio Revised Code if a non-profit solicits donations from the public in that state and does not have 501(c)(3) status for whatever reason). We backed up our complaint with printouts of all the relevant documentation.

    Now, it’s possible, indeed quite probably the case, that Denise, thick as she is, had misunderstood the way tax law works and thought that simply being a charity and a non-profit meant that donations were automatically tax-deductible.

    But remember their press release claimed Rick Marco was involved, which is also quite likely given his role in incorporating ICCF and his intimate role in running BBAS. 

    As an attorney in good standing, Rick cannot claim that ignorance of the law as an excuse on something this basic. If he was an officer or director of ICCF and unaware of Denise’s claims, then he’s professionally negligent. If he was aware, then he was complicit in solicitation fraud.

    We never heard back from either the Ohio AG or the IRS as to whether any action was taken as a result.

    In January 2003, we and a handful of others attempted to access the website, but it came up as not found.  Later that year, the website was permanently taken down.  However, the site can be reviewed at archive.org. 

    In 2005 Hubbard and Marco did not file a Statement of Continued Existence with the Ohio Secretary of State's office for ICCF.  The SOS in Feb. 2005 mailed Denise a reminder to send in the Statement of Continued Existence.  On June 25, 2005, the International Concern for Children Fund, Inc. was cancelled for "Failure to File a Statement of Continued Existence."  A fitting end to a useless, money-losing organization.

***

    After this website went online, we learned actual deception may have been involved in ICCF instead of mere incompetence.

   When a former and never-again client wrote to us, she informed us how far Denise was willing to go to get her business.

    The client contacted BBAS about a boy with a facial deformity they had seen on a photolisting in 2001.  Denise told them her “Foundation” had paid for the boy’s facial surgery.

    The family took Denise at her word.  They believed the "Foundation" had paid for the boy's surgery.

    But long after their son had come home, they learned that a different organization entirely had paid for his facial surgery. They were perplexed as to why Denise blatantly lied about who paid for the surgery.

    Needless to say, once they discovered Denise's deception about who who paid for their son's surgery,  they became strong supporters of the other organization and were filled with contempt for Denise and her lying and costly ways.   You can read this hopeful story here.

    But why did Denise let ICCF take credit for the child’s operation when in fact they hadn’t put forth a penny?

    How did the money really get spent?  Since there are no 990s for her clients to review, only Denise Hubbard knows that.

    ***

    Even in its absence, ICCF would continue to cast a shadow over the Blocks.

    In 2006, long after it had become part of the past, we received this forwarded email from another one of the many BBAS disgruntled.

    Note the highlighted section:

 

Dear Families of Building Blocks:
 
There have been many changes in the adoption laws, rules and regulations in many countries around the world.  Building Blocks performs a lot of adoptions through the country of Guatemala .  Guatemala has been some having some increasing problems and increasing expenses associated with their adoptions.
 
It is now that Building Blocks is involved in the providing assistance in Guatemala for the use of a building as an orphanage.  There are a number of children in that orphanage.  However, due to the number of children awaiting adoptions, some of the children are temporarily residing in the same crib. We are short in supplies due to a number of the children are abandoned and waiting to go through the abandonment process in order to be placed.
 
It is understood that your individual adoptions were expensive and that there may not be much monies for the children that are still in Guatemala .  However, we do ask that if you are at all able to contribute toward a fund to be used to purchase these cribs and the needed supplies that you would consider that.
 
The cost for each crib including, sheets, bumper pads, mobile and mattress is about $250 USD. We currently are in need of ten more cribs.  Building Blocks has just purchased five.
 
In addition to cribs, we are seeking any monetary donations to purchase every day items such as diapers, diaper cream, clothes, toys, medical supplies, bottles, food and formula.
 
Building Blocks has recently hired two additional caretakers.  We could use more caretakers to care for the children. The current cost is $200 a month per caretaker. Building Blocks has committed itself to these two caretakers for the rest of this year.  If anyone is interested in sponsoring a caretaker, please let us know.
 
Building Blocks Adoption Service, Inc. is an Ohio not-for-profit organization but is not a federal 501C3 entity.  As a result, it is likely that any contributions made will not be deductible for federal tax purposes.  However, we do feel that the humanitarian effort is worth the consideration even in the absence of such deductibility.
 
If you have any further questions or comments concerning this matter, please feel free to e-mail myself at denise@bbas.org or the attorney for Building Blocks at rick@bbas.org.
 
Very truly yours,
 
Denise Hubbard
Executive Director
 
DH/vc

 Hmm. Wonder how Denise learned that little lesson?

 And could those fund have been going to support a certain Guatemalan baby house, making its “First Steps”, so to speak?

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