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Seymour Kurtz out of business?

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While we can never be sure Seymour Kurtz and his adoption agencies will be really out of business until the man is dead and buried, today news arrived that indicate his organization is no longer in business.

When we wrote the post Seymour Kurtz: an update, we got in contact with Suz Bednarz, who has a blog called Writing my wrongs and is the founder of ehbabes.com.  In an email exchange she told us about a rumour Easter House, one of the agencies run by Seymour Kurtz, had been shut down. According to security of the building "the Feds raided them". Illinois Department of Children and Family Services wouldn't confirm or deny they were still licensed.

Today we were forwarded an email sent to Suz by an American couple living in Switzerland, who were in the process of adopting through Adoption World, Inc., another of Seymour Kurtz' agency. The email stated:

December 2006 we engaged the services of Adoption World and paid them $5,000.00 between this time and August 2007. We also paid $7,000.00 to their partner company American Institiute for Family Services, Inc, also in Chicago, at the same address, to complete our dossier. Just yesterday, July 23,2008 we received registered mail packet with our file and a letter stating that Adoption World could no longer provide service to us and they will be giving up their license in the state of Illinois. No money has been returned. The telephone number no longer works, neither does the number for Easter House or Birth Hope in Arizona. I am filing a complaint with the Attorney Generals office in Illinois consumer fraud bureau. I have also emailed the Illinois department of Children and Family Services.

See: Kurtz in Europe for the entire email.

Let's hope for all those hurt by the practices of Seymour Kurtz cum suis, this is truly the end of an era, but quoting Suz in an email exchange earlier today: "My fear is that it is not. But I will hope. Kurtz is crafty. He will set up shop elsewhere under some other bogus name". She could very well be right he survived two congressional hearings and dozens of lawsuits and still managed to be in business. A business that started June 4, 1952. Maybe at the age of 78, the time has come for Seymore Jerome Kurtz to end his baby broker business, but we can only be certainty of that when we read his obituary.

by Kerry and Niels on Friday, 25 July 2008