U.S. Families Learn Truth About Adopted Cambodian Children

[Perom Uch]

U.S. Families Learn Truth About Adopted Cambodian
Children

Woman at Center of Alleged Baby-Trafficking Ring Talks
to '20/20'

- In the first case of its kind, an American adoption
facilitator who helped more than 700 families adopt
babies from Cambodia will be sent to prison on charges
related to baby trafficking. In an exclusive interview
with "20/20's" Elizabeth Vargas, Lauryn Galindo talks
about the adoptions she arranged for American
families.
Watch Elizabeth Vargas' full report tonight on "20/20"
at 10 p.m.
Although self-described humanitarian Galindo pleaded
guilty to charges of visa fraud, money laundering and
tax-related felonies in 17 cases, she says they were
merely errors in paperwork and denies having anything
to do with child trafficking.
But the U.S. government and some of the families she
worked with paint a much darker picture of Galindo's
activities and their lasting consequences. Now
hundreds of adoptive families are left with agonizing
questions: Were their babies really orphans, or were
they purchased from birth parents too poor to resist a
handful of American dollars? Did Galindo's criminal
actions in essence wipe out the true identities of
Cambodian babies, many taken away from extended
families, and did she possibly squander millions of
dollars in donations from adoptive families who
thought their contributions would aid Cambodian
orphanages?
By all accounts Galindo went to Cambodia with good
intentions. She is credited with setting up the first
U.S. adoptions from the country, and paving the way
for all the adoptions that followed -- thousands more.
Her clients were well-meaning couples who thought
that, along with adding to their families, they were
saving true orphans from a terrible life without hope.
In this hourlong expos&eactue;, "20/20's" Vargas finds
shattered families who say that what actually happened
was far less wholesome.
Vargas travels to Cambodia to trace the evidence in a
two-year government investigation. "20/20" chronicles
one adopted teen's wrenching journey back to her
birthplace, and discovers another child's real birth
family in a remote mountain town. In far-flung
villages and decrepit city orphanages, "20/20" finds
mothers who received money for their babies, the
middlemen who profited, orphanage directors who say
they were paid to lie about a child's true origins,
and evidence that some mothers had been coerced into
giving up their babies with false promises.
"These were manufactured orphans," says Judi Mosely,
one of the parents who adopted an orphan from
Cambodia. "They never should have been taken from
their families."
Galindo will now serve 18 months in prison. Cambodia's
real orphans have been left to suffer. Because of the
scandal, the United States issued a moratorium against
adoptions from Cambodia and most other Western
countries followed suit. There is considerable debate
about when and how it should be lifted.

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