Monday, July 23, 2012

Kyrgyzstan Investigating Allegations of Bribery in Agency Accreditation

According to news sources, Kyrgyzstan’s social development minister was arrested on Wednesday July 4, 2012 under suspicion of seeking at least $15,000 in bribes from a United States adoption agency. According to the media, the US agency had paid $10,000 in bribes to become accredited to participate in intercountry adoptions from Kyrgyzstan under the Hague, and the minister was seeking additional payments.

Sources:

Kyrgyz minister arrested for seeking bribe in adoption scandal, July 6, 2012, Central Asia Business Newswire http://www.universalnewswires.com/centralasia/business/viewstory.aspx?id=12367

Kyrgyzstan: Latest Adoption Scandal Pro-Children or Just Politics?, July 18, 2012, Eurasianet http://www.eurasianet.org/node/65695
edited 7/23/12 to additional media source: 
Kyrgyzstan: Minister for social development arrested on bribery charges July 24, 2012 Ferghana News http://enews.fergananews.com/news.php?id=2316

PEAR is requesting disclosure of the US adoption agency involved in the scandal.  We will continue to follow the story and will provide updates as they become available.

Edited 4:20 pm EST 7/23/12:

List of US accredited agencies, partnering agencies and agencies seeking accreditation from Kyrgyzstan (this list is in progress and will be updated as we discover new information):

***See latest update: http://pear-now.blogspot.com/2012/07/update-kyrgyzstan-reportedly-revokes.html

Ethics, Transparency, Support
~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
http://www.pear-now.org/

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