Chapter
Twenty-Nine
The Release and Our Decision
“The
handshake seals the contract
From
the contract there’s no turning back…
The
holiday was fun-packed
The
contract still intact
The
grabbing hands grab all they can – all for themselves after all
It’s
a competitive world – Everything Counts in Large Amounts
The
graph on the wall tells the story of it all
Picture
it now, see just how
The
lies and deceit gained a little more power
Confidence
taken in by a suntan and a grin”
-Depeche
Mode
The day before Linda Wright traveled for her first visit to Guatemala, she emailed us to say that she that she had obtained the waiver and refund offer from BBAS. She typed out the terms put forth in their release for our review.
Do you know how much money BBAS refunded to her? $2,500.
$2,500! That’s it folks!
For all that she had been through, for the pain of rejecting Yekaterina, for the lies that she had been told about the baby, for the fees that she had paid, the airfare, the money lost in Moscow to Dmitri ... $2,500.
Linda said that
she could live with the terms in the waiver and signed it. She needed the money. The check for $2,500 arrived in her mailbox within
two days of her signing, faxing and then mailing the release off to BBAS in
Ohio.
Make no mistake. The waiver that Linda signed is a document that guarantees her silence about her experiences in Perm, Russia, for as long as BBAS remains in business.
Since then she cannot
talk about her experience with BBAS. But we can, and have done so repeatedly.
Daniel and I wondered. Why hadn’t we received the Release from BBAS?
At first we told them that we would like to wait for Anguel’s homecoming, but it was odd that they hadn’t even offered to put our “refund” towards his adoption expenses.
We figured that we would owe BBAS and their Bulgarian facilitator another $6,000, so why not just have the funds transferred to Anguel’s adoption?
After all, EAC offered their clients this. This logic must have been lost on BBAS — but, then again, anything EAC does is obviously wrong, according to Denise Hubbard. Or else they were just too cash-starved to make the offer to us. Or they were so determined to
(But, given what we have subsequently been able to find about the operations of BBAS’s Bulgarian program, there may be other, less innocent, explanations).
Under the pretext that Daniel’s father wanted to be paid for the money that he had loaned us, we pressed Denise for the release. We didn’t let on that Linda Wright had already let us see it.
We were also confused as to why the money was to come from Dennis Kaselak and Dennis Gornostaev’s IACS, Inc. as mentioned in the 1999 tax letter that BBAS had sent us.
And just where did the $9,500 amount come from? Who had agreed to this amount? (not us, to be sure). What
was included in this? Why didn’t
they just give us $20,000 and call it a day?
We were told by many people in the adoption industry that BBAS was offering us far more than other people had been offered by their agencies in refund situation. Although we hadn’t ruled it out yet, we did not want to pursue litigation, because we felt that neither Denise Hubbard, BBAS, nor its officers were directly liable for Cyril’s death (although we still believe Denise didn’t help matters with her fibbing about the diaper rash).
Nevertheless, we
didn’t like the way the situation was being handled. We didn’t feel we were getting any help or emotional support (not that
we were owed any, but it contrasted with the pleasant working relationship we
had enjoyed with Denise and the agency before Russia), there had been no offer
to apply the funds to Anguel’s adoption, and we were slowly being silenced by the
agency.
The Release was sent out by Richard J. Marco, Jr., of the law firm Marco, Marco and Bailey, BBAS’s attorney in Medina. We would get to know Mr. Marco and his underhanded ways very well in the months to follow. His wife Cynthia was at that time, in fact, BBAS’s “director.”
His letter of Feb. 15, 2000, stated:
The Release will be integral to a refund of your monies paid as a result of the unfortunate death of your child, Cyril …Unfortunately, in the matter of legal representation, we find it necessary to request that you execute the enclosed release and return it by FAX to Denise.
At that point in time, she will be able to send you a check for that amount indicated in the release. Kindly return the original release to me in the self-addressed stamped envelope enclosed herewith. The original release should be returned as soon as you have received the check from Denise Hubbard at Building Blocks.
When we looked at it, we realized, we could not morally sign this document, not then, not ever. Not as it was drafted.
The
line that the amount of $9,500 was “sufficient to resolve all existing and
future claims for damages arising out of the contract between BUILDING BLOCKS
ADOPTION SERVICES, INC. and Daniel and Elizabeth Case” was invalid; they were
to treat us with abject hostility during Anguel’s adoption and cause us enough
emotional harassment and pain to nearly drop his adoption, and then some.
$9,500 would not be nearly enough to compensate us for that.
Both Daniel’s father, who is a partner at a Wall Street law firm, and his wife, also an attorney, looked at it and said it was poorly drafted.
They did not like the language “the releasors agree to hold the terms
and conditions of their relationship one to the other and this release
confidential, and thereby, will not directly or
indirectly communicate negative information about the other to any third parties.”
Essentially, we could not speak about Cyril, even if we wanted to, to our own family members or even a counselor.
And just what was “negative information?” A dead baby? The truth about our experience with Denise Hubbard and her lies that were to continue as Anguel’s adoption progressed? The lies that she would continue to tell other clients?
We
were to find out that Denise Hubbard could not be trusted with information about
her other clients; we were to learn that she indeed spread clients
information to other people. And on
top of that, use existing clients to harass unruly clients like we would soon
become.
How could we be expected to keep silent about Cyril’s death? By doing so, we would be erasing him, and for Cyril we just couldn’t do
it. Not for any amount of money.
Only after bringing Anguel home were we confident enough to state clearly to Mr. Marco our objections to the release and request the appropriate changes. As you will see, this was fruitless.
Today, we are glad that we did not give in to financial need and sign this document. What was to follow with Anguel was indeed cause for a lawsuit because things were about to get real fun with Denise, BBAS, Bulgaria and Richard J. Marco Esq.
They were going to learn that well-informed, pissed-off and ostracized clients were their worst enemies. Especially those who couldn’t be silenced by money.
Honesty is the best policy, and honesty is severely lacking
at Building Blocks Adoption Services and those who run the organization.
Basically, they could take that release and shove it straight up their collective ass. We weren’t going to sign it, we will never sign it and we hope that Denise Hubbard choked on the money that she has unethically kept from us.
One dead baby in Russia was going to cost her clients, and more importantly, the money that she had grown so accustomed to by pimping children from Russia, Bulgaria, Romania, Guatemala, Cambodia and Kazakhstan for adoption.