FBI investigates adoption Web site

Kimberley, left, and Belinda have known three mothers in their six months of life     WEB EXCLUSIVE Charles Feldman on the internet adoption controversy

LONDON, England -- The FBI is investigating the adoption Web site at the centre of the row over U.S. twin girls who were sold to two different couples before being brought into Britain.

There was reason to believe several couples from different states had paid money to the Caring Heart Adoption Web site, but did not get children, an FBI spokesman in Los Angeles told CNN on Wednesday.

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation in Salt Lake City, Utah, is leading the inquiry and has identified "multiple victims" in their preliminary inquiry.

The news came as British Prime Minister Tony Blair stepped into the row over the legal status of the six-month-old twins, Kimberley and Belinda.

He said it was "absolutely deplorable that children are traded this way. Adoption should always be about the interests of the child first."

Alan and Judith Kilshaw paid the adoption agency $12,000 (£8,200) for the girls and brought them to Britain on six-month visitors' passports.

ALSO The pitfalls of Internet adoption

Before this, Richard and Vickie Allen of California told CNN they paid $6,000 in fees to Caring Heart Adoption for the twin girls, who they named Kiera and Keyara, and their mother, Tranda Wecker, to be flown from St. Louis, Missouri, to California.

Richard Allen said Wecker stayed with him and his wife for about 11 days before returning to St. Louis, leaving the children with the Allens. He said after two months, the mother "called and said she wanted to visit with the children one last time to have closure."

Wecker came back to California, visited the children and "she never brought them back," he said.

The mother handed the twins over to Alan and Judith Kilshaw, who went to Arkansas to adopt the babies under the state's more relaxed adoption laws, before bringing them to Britain.

The Allens hold the twins in October with their adopted two-year-old son Andrew

Authorities in Wales are investigating the circumstances of the adoption by the Kilshaws who live in Flintshire in North Wales, but the couple insist they have done nothing illegal.

"The British government has a lot of cheek criticising the adoption system of another country. If Arkansas says we have adopted these children, that should be good enough," Alan Kilshaw said.

He said that he did not consider either couple had "bought" the children, arguing they had paid a fee for someone to arrange the adoption for them.

Kilshaw added that he felt sorry for the Allens. "At the end of the day, we knew they had tried to go through an adoption which was not possible because the birth mother had changed her mind within the prescribed period.

"We have sympathy for them but obviously we couldn't alter that because it was a fact outside our control."

Blair's spokesman said earlier that if the children had been brought into Britain on visitors' visas as has been reported, then they would appear to be here legally.

But he said the British government would also be watching the outcome of court proceedings in the United States and reviewing the case here accordingly.

The Allens say they will do all they can through the courts to get them back.

The Kilshaws, who already have three children, said they turned to the Internet because they wanted another daughter and felt they would be turned down by adoption authorities in the UK. They are now planning to apply for British citizenship for the twins.

CNN correspondent Charles Feldman and Reuters contributed to this report.

The pitfalls of Internet adoption
January 17, 2001
Legal battle over Internet twins
January 17, 2001
Couples fight for Internet twins
January 16, 2001

UK Home Office
British Agencies for Adoption and Fostering
Federal Bureau of Investigation

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.