Chapter Ten

The Towells Go It Alone

    After this, Alysha broke the last BBAS taboo and connected on the Internet and found two other badly taken Amrex clients, one of whom was the Genesis client I had mentioned previously.  The other was a client who had been burned by Beacon House and had found out useful information about Beacon House, its accreditation and how it operated within the Amrex framework of umbrellaing its accreditation.

    She decided to contact other adoption agencies directly to see if they could help (Sound familiar?).

    Her first contact was Frank in North Carolina. She had been informed that the Frank Foundation had completed many successful adoptions for military families.  However, they were not accommodating. As a matter of fact, they were totally and utterly unhelpful.

    Next she tried MAPS who was the same as Frank. Lastly she tried WACAP, and although they were helpful, they regretfully told her they did not work in Amur (they couldn’t — Amrex had a monopoly there).

    Contacting other agencies was getting her nowhere. She was unable to learn anything about the appeals process in the Russian court system. 

    One day, after she had finished crying, Alysha got down to business.  She logged on to her favorite search engine and typed in “Russian Attorneys Family Law Practice.”  

    She reasoned that if she had wanted to adopt a child domestically, she would need an American attorney whose specialty was family law. Why not for Russia as well?  Surely they had attorneys who did this sort of thing.

    Her reasoning paid off. Within a half hour she had the name and contact number of an outstanding Russian adoption attorney by the name of Irina O’Rear.  Mrs. O’Rear had handled SUCCESSFUL appeals of bungled adoptions by American agencies.

    Irina O’Rear lives in the United States and wanted to aid families independently adopting from Russia. She had seen the need in the Russian adoption community for her skills — she saw far too many families being financially taken on a process that was by and large free in Russia.  

    Neither she nor anybody else could fathom where those agency “foreign placement/commitment fees” of $10-15,000 really went. Or for what purposes.

    Irina O’Rear had been a judge in the Perm region of Russia around the time of Cyril’s death. It would be through the Towell’s connection with Mrs. O’Rear that we would eventually hire her ourselves to finally get Cyril’s coveted autopsy report.

    Alysha contacted Mrs. O’Rear and upon hearing their story decided to help them with an appeal.  She would charge them $500 for the appeal, and if the appeal failed, she would help them adopt two other children from Amur for $11,000.

    It kept Mrs. O’Rear busy traveling back and forth to Russia keeping the Towells’ updated on the confusing appeals process in Russia, both in Moscow and Amur. Far above and beyond her $500 charge for the appeal.

    Alysha let it slip to Denise about asking Irina O’Rear’s help for an appeal one day on the telephone. She said emphatically that the Russian adoption attorney Irina O’Rear had won appeals for adopting families. At this, Denise became hysterically anti-Irina and began to search for damning information on her.

    Denise, inferring from Alysha’s statement, that Alysha had unleashed the power of the Internet for research purposes, said to Alysha — “Whoever told you that I am a liar and a money hoarder is spreading lies about me!” Whatever that was supposed to mean went right over Alysha’s head until she began to research BBAS on the Internet.

    And finally September she broke down and researched “Building Blocks Adoption Service.” Immediately she hit Mary Mooney’s site and searched on “Building Blocks Adoption Service, Inc.” Cyril’s story popped up. 

    Alysha read it thoroughly. She told me later the inscription on DR#2’s sign sealed it for her.

    It was through Mary Mooney that Alysha contacted us; I received the following email from her on Wednesday Sept. 5 simply titled “Need Your Help.”

Hi! I'm a Building Blocks Client and I didn't have the benefit of hearing your story until it was too late. Ours has gone horribly wrong. We have been lied to and dragged out long enough for my taste and what's worse my little boy is not, in heaven where he can be at peace he is being dragged up and down the hall of an orphanage being told to walk which he cannot do without medical intervention.

I need to know if you sued Amrex or if you were able to get any of your fees back from them. They have all my money and I have no child. I found a Russian lawyer who is going to help me with my little boy's case but, I need at least my $6000 from the  orphanage donation that hasn't been spent to pay this woman. I though if anyone challanaged Amrex it would be you. My number is -.

There is too much to explain in an e-mail. Or if you would send me your number I'll call you. Please let me know if you can help.

    The Cases were there to help. Who knew more about the dubious dealings in Medina, than the famed duo from New York State?  

    I called Alysha and we spoke for two hours. It was a conversation I will remember.  A conversation where tears filled my eyes as Alysha described Oleg’s treatment by his “caregivers” in Blagoveshchensk.

    Alysha went into very great detail about her dealings with Amrex and its unethical practices in Russia. She said she had contacted Irina O’Rear to appeal the judge’s decision in Amur.

    Unfortunately I had to tell her that BBAS was not an Amrex agency at the time we signed on with them, and we did not have reason to seek legal recourse against Amrex. If BBAS had been an Amrex agency at the time, we probably would have been paid off in cash or with an instantaneous referral delivered to our hotel room the night Cyril died.

    We also spoke of this “$6,000 orphanage fee” that the Towells and other BBAS families had given directly to Tatyana Dmitriyeva. Alysha was convinced that a large portion of the fee was siphoned off, most of it going directly to Tatyana and/or Sasha from Moscow’s pocket. We can’t say we disagreed with her. 

    She said that BBAS was telling her that the $6,000 could be transferred to Vladivostok where Alexander was, but yet, if they wanted to walk entirely from BBAS/Amrex, this $6,000 WOULD NOT be returned to them.  Odd liquidity of funds I should say.  All of this, of course, was told to her directly by Denise.

    She asked about the orphanage donation we had made to Cyril’s orphanage. I told her that not one red cent went to the orphanage.  

    We still firmly believe this to be the case. These fees in cash were nothing new, and were not Amrex-specific. 

    In 1999 Amrex’s facilitators infiltrated the Amur region and approximately 100 children have been placed with American families. 

    Americans are generous. Not only were the clients of the various Amrex agencies paying the “foreign commitment and orphanage fees”, but many brought with them donations of vitamins, food, clothes and medicines, and cash. Cash donated on top of fees paid to the agency in America or directly to Tatyana in Blagoveshchensk.

    Judging by the health of the children in Oleg and Elena’s orphanage, a substantial amount of money had not gone towards those left behind.

    Again, the paragraph from Towell’s signed BBAS contract regarding the $6,000 fee:

CONSIDERATION 3 e): Orphanage and International Fees of $6,000 shall be paid in the form of cash overseas to the overseas coordinators.

    After the Towells, BBAS clients were soon told to PAY IN FULL before they could even travel for their first tip. And that language would change in BBAS’s contract regarding the Orphanage and International Fees. 

    Where has that $6,000 gone? What was Tatyana Dmitriyeva doing with it? Was the $6,000 fee for BBAS only or did this language occur in other Amrex agency contracts? 

    Alysha related a (to us) amusing anecdote about Denise Hubbard, which still makes us laugh today.  

    She had mentioned to Denise that she had found Cyril’s story on Mary Mooney’s site. At the mere mention of this, Denise went apoplectic.  

    “You mean those crazy Cases?” Alysha didn’t know what to say. Denise went on.  “They’re on a mission to destroy us!  They have a vendetta against us! They are mean, hateful and spiteful people! THEY DON’T UNDERSTAND! DON’T LISTEN TO THEM!”

    Alysha ribbed Denise — “But what about the sign on the orphanage that they took a photo of? And what about the diaper rash?”

    Denise could not talk her way out of that one.

    It was a nice thing to hear Alysha relay this conversation, to know we’d hurt Denise with our constant drumming on what a schemer and liar she was.  And the illicit business she was running. 

    We and Alysha have remained in contact.  Our adoptions were complete, but the Towells were in for a further hectic ride through Russian adoption land.

Back Next