AP Enterprise: Guatemala adoption fraud query throws US adoptions into limbo

While waiting for Luciany, Mary Ball became pregnant herself with a daughter, Isabella. She looked forward to the girls growing up together, along with her 3-year-old son, Hadyn.

Then came the horrible day last August when Mary Ball received an e-mail at work from Casa Quivira. Authorities had raided the agency, seizing Luciany and 45 other babies.

Casa Quivira's notary and attorney were arrested on charges of illegally processing paperwork. Since then, prosecutors also have built a case against the owner, Clifford Phillips of Deland, Fla.

Phillips, who owns the agency with his Guatemalan wife Sandra Gonzalez, an attorney, has denied any responsibility for fraud. The couple has handled hundreds of adoptions since it opened in 1996, and outside adoption experts said their record was spotless.

Phillips told the AP he has been made the "whipping boy" for a system in which corrupt officials have for years supplied and signed off on adoption documents.

"I have nothing to do with documents. I don't touch documents," Phillips said. "They want me to be responsible for making sure the process is not fraudulent? I'm not equipped to do that. I have faith that the Guatemalan attorneys did all they could to check it out."

Defense lawyers for Casa Quivira's attorney and notary, in turn, blamed birth mothers and others for fraud, telling the judge at the Monday hearing that they can't be responsible for confirming that the documents they present are legitimate.

But Solicitor General Mario Gordillo told the AP that somebody had to have walked the women through the process of falsifying documents, and that Phillips and his lawyer and notary must be held to account.

"These biological mothers many times can't read nor write, much less falsify IDs or birth certificates," Gordillo said.

Thirty-six of the babies seized in the August raid are still being held at Casa Quivira.