Ont. adoption agency bankruptcy spurs probe

The fraud division of the Waterloo Regional Police has opened an investigation into an Ontario-based adoption agency that went bankrupt earlier this month.

The investigation began after two members of the three-member board of directors of Kids Link International, which operated under the name Imagine Adoption, expressed concerns to police about the agency.

"They brought allegations of fraud that they feel they discovered in the organization," Sgt. Ron Zensner said.

Zensner wouldn’t provide many details, saying only that the investigation is in the early stages of gathering documents and setting up interviews of potential witnesses.

The Cambridge, Ont.-based agency posted a bankruptcy notice on its website July 13.

As many as 400 Canadian families, many who paid $15,000 in adoption fees, are now waiting to find out when they will be matched with their adopted children. They have been listed as unsecured creditors in bankruptcy documents, posted online through bankruptcy trustee BDO Dunwoody.

For the last two years, the agency had helped Canadians adopt children from Ethiopia, Ghana and Ecuador.

BDO Dunwoody has told the agency's clients that the children in Ethiopia are safe and being taken care of at Imagine Adoption's transitional house in the country's capital, Addis Ababa.

The cost of adopting a child with Imagine started at about $10,000.

Families who had hoped to adopt children through the agency are meeting Friday with officials at the Ontario Ministry of Children and Youth Services.