Opinion ID: 1200233
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Fergusons' Adoption

Text: The Fergusons were among the clients swept up in the fracas between CFA and World Child. Having successfully adopted a child through the joint venture in its happier days, the Fergusons began the process of applying to adopt a second child in January 2003. Along with World Child's other clients in the New York area, they received a letter in April 2004 informing them that World Child's New York office had relocated, but failing to indicate that this new office was no longer affiliated with CFA. In May 2004, the Fergusons paid World Child $12,200 in foreign program fees in connection with their application to adopt a Russian child. As the Fergusons prepared to travel to Russia to finalize their adoption, they received instructions from the office now operated by Dibble and Whitaker to bring large amounts of cash to use as gifts for Russian officials. When they arrived in Russia in early August 2004, the Fergusons were met by defendant Yaroslav Panasov, World Child's Moscow-based representative who assisted the Fergusons before the local court. The Fergusons were required to entertain and feed Panasov, and several of the gifts they were instructed to provide went to him and to World Child's Moscow office, even though the Fergusons had already paid over $12,000 in foreign program fees. On August 10, 2004, the Russian court denied the Fergusons' adoption application because it found irregularities in their documentation. Panasov filed a handwritten appeal, which was denied on August 27, 2004. The Fergusons later learned that several of their documents, including the required update of a home study originally done by CFA in 2003, had been falsified and forged by Dibble. The amended complaint contains additional allegations about World Child's billing of foreign program fees allegedly based upon information to which Spool was privy in his capacity as the head of CFA. In 2002, according to the amended complaint, Spool was told by Goolsby and Jenkins that World Child was increasing the foreign program fee that it charged to clients and that it was using the extra payments to cover general expenses while informing clients that the entire fee was necessary to pay foreign affiliates to process adoptions. The plaintiffs allege that World Child deposited at least some of these extra fees into the Foundation of World Child, Inc. (the Foundation), a purportedly not-for-profit entity affiliated with World Child that was managed by Jenkins and allegedly used to shelter World Child's assets in order to avoid legal judgments. The amended complaint does not allege that this activity caused damage to Spool or CFA, nor that CFA objected to it.