Chapter Fifty-Nine
Edmund,
Candace and the Penns
And who
was this Edmund Koch, evil, horrible German reporter for ProSieben
TV in Munich? It was a name familiar to me and I know I had seen it before
someplace.
At the time I
had begun Anguel’s adoption, I had taken the opportunity to print out
FaCaB’s guestbook (unfortunately, it is no longer available on the web), full
of people who had begun or completed Bulgarian adoptions.
Sure
enough, when I searched the printout of the FaCaB guestbook, there was the
following message from an “E.R. Koch” from “Germany”, message #41 on
Jan. 29, 1999.
Hi everybody, we are
just doing a research about adopted children from Bulgaria, through which
organizations?, good and bad experiences?, which orphanages? Etc. If anybody is willing to help us with informations, please
feel free to email. This is no commercial approach!! Confidential informations will be kept confidential!
Thanks, E.R. Koch.
Confidential indeed! Mr. Koch was on a fishing expedition, looking to nail
a big fish, and what better place to do it than on a site promoting Bulgarian
adoptions by Americans?
And Mr. Koch
did end up hooking a few with this lure. One family who contacted him were the
“Penns” (we have changed their name).
He told them
that he was an Austrian woman looking to adopt in Bulgaria — he (she) was not
paper ready and was looking for the quickest route possible. Who were the Penns
using, (s)he asked.
Then it
gets interesting. The Penns had signed up for an international adoption with an
agency by the name of A Loving Family”
in Alexandria, Va. (Yes, the very same “A Loving Family” that placed
children from Perm with the aid of Amrex facilitators).
Their referral was almost immediate. They received a videotape and medicals
directly from Bulgaria in late August for a little girl in an orphanage in
Burgas.
What
is interesting about this is that on the outside of the videotape the
facilitator’s name, address and telephone number was listed: Valeri Kamenov.
They
were instructed to send $2,500 to Candace O’Brien, an American attorney who
lived and worked in Germany, to aid in the paperwork process for this little
girl.
In
September 1998 they traveled to Bulgaria with $7,400 to give to Valeri Kamenov.
Vladimir, Mr. Kamenov’s son, was working as the translator (as he would for
us); they were told that Vladimir was studying law at the University of Sofia.
The Penns
reported that they stayed in an apartment that appeared to have been owned by the
Kamenovs’ in Sofia. Valeri and Vladimir drove them cross-country to Burgas to
see their little girl in that same brown Mercedes-Benz that he had when I first
traveled in October 1999, over a year later.
The trip
went well; they said yes to their little girl.
Then, in
January 1999 they hooked up with “E.R. Koch” and gave “E.R Koch” Candace
O’Brien’s information. You know what happened next ... Candace was
arrested in Germany in April 1999.
However,
the Penns were not informed of Candace’s arrest by either anyone in
Bulgaria or at the adoption agency, A Loving Family. It was entirely by chance
at work that Mr. Penn was told about the arrest in Germany.
In no time
flat, they were in a panic. How were they to get their little girl out of the
orphanage? A Loving Family was no help to them whatsoever; Candace O’Brien was
out of the picture and then, before they knew it, a ProSieben TV crew was
standing outside their door wanting an interview to be shown on German TV!
Mrs. Penn
gave a fast interview answering “yes and no” and allowed the ProSieben TV
crew to videotape their adoption contract with A Loving Family. She was to
later learn that they then went to Sofia and videotaped the Kamenovs’
apartment building, calling it “luxury” accommodations in the heart of
Sofia.
They did
what only the most desperate of us have done: they contacted Valeri Kamenov
directly to help them with the adoption. Much to his credit, Valeri stepped up
to the plate and finished the adoption for them.
I want to
add that at this time, Valeri was not working with Mr. Dobrev, the
attorney he used for our adoption as well as all the other BBAS clients. Mrs.
Penn told me he had been working with another attorney who had worked in
Bulgaria’s Office of Child Welfare, which oversaw the orphanage system under
Communist rule.
Is this how
Valeri was so connected to Dr. Sabrutova in Burgas? If so, what happened
to this attorney? Is he dead? How was Dobrev brought into this? Yet
more unanswered questions.
At long
last it came time to pick up their daughter from Burgas. They left in August
1999, right between the time that many BBAS families were making their first
treks to Kurjali, Burgas and Buzovgrad. Valeri managed to fit them in and drove
them to Burgas.
Mrs. Penn
noticed that Dr. Sabrutova and Valeri were on very familiar terms, much like I
would during my trip two months later. All love, hugs and kisses. Seems
that they had been working together for quite some time.
Mrs. Penn
told me that Valeri Kamenov had asked them to bring the following in cash:
$3,600 plus $400 for “translation fees” and $200 for “traveling
expenses.”
I want to point
out here, that these fees jibe almost exactly with what we paid for Anguel. When I went over for my first visit, I handed Mr. Kamenov and
Vladimir $7,500. On Anguel’s pickup trip, we gave them $3,500.
BBAS charges
its Bulgarian clients $680 as a translation fee. Kamenov’s prices didn’t go up, but BBAS
were raised in 2000 on
the American end.
So, who was making money out of these adoptions?
A funny
thing happened to the Penns when it came time for their interview at the
American consulate. Valeri parked the brown Mercedes-Benz a full block
away from the Consulate and would not go inside with them.
He handed the
Penns their documents, and the Penns went in with their new daughter all by
themselves. Fortunately, they explained things to the officer who was
handling the paperwork, and their final paperwork hurdle was painlessly over.
Mrs. Penn
reported that Mr. Kamenov’s wife, Ani, was very friendly and nice to their
daughter. At the end, Valeri invited them back to Bulgaria as his guests.
Again, as with us, Valeri was the one to help out the clients — not the
American agency.
But, the Penns were burned by Candace O’Brien. They took the
opportunity to report her to the Illinois Bar Association, and never heard back
from her. Nice way to treat your clients.
Interestingly, in 2002, Mr. Penn took Valeri up on his invitation to look him up
if he ever returned to Bulgaria, which he did on business that year.
Valeri was actually delighted to hear from them and wanted to know how their
daughter had turned out. He wouldn’t say much about the troubles the year
before ... but he did say that the attention Candace’s activities had
brought to him were, ultimately, the source of all his problems.