Adoption scammer hears from his victims

By ERIC LINDBERG

Some called him a “pernicious parasite,” a “sociopath,” and a “master of the con.” They vowed never to personally absolve him and condemned him to “burn in hell.”

Others said they have already granted forgiveness and urged him to seek religious salvation.

Orson Mozes sat apparently unfazed in a Santa Barbara courtroom during a sentencing hearing yesterday, listening to the words of the victims he swindled out of roughly $800,000 through his adoption business.

The 57-year-old continued to show little emotion as the judge handed down a sentence of three years and four months in prison, along with orders to pay $771,474 in restitution to the victims of his scam.

Mozes had agreed to those terms when he entered a plea of guilty on 17 felony counts of fraud and a white-collar crime enhancement earlier this month. He had originally faced 59 counts in connection with an adoption agency he operated from his Montecito home.

Investigators had uncovered a scheme in which Mozes would place Eastern European children up for adoption, promise to hold specific children for prospective parents and collect high fees.

Typically after long delays and mountains of paperwork, Mozes would then inform the hopeful adoptive parents that their child had been adopted by someone else or returned to a family member. Rarely did his clients experience a smooth and timely adoption process, according to court documents.

Dale Allert, the only victim who appeared in court yesterday to deliver a victim impact statement in person, said he and his wife signed an adoption agreement with Mozes in March 2005.

He had seen photos of two sisters on the adoption agency’s website and said Mozes had promised to hold the two girls for a fee.

“We, in good faith, believed Orson Mozes’ statements were true,” Allert said.

After poring over piles of documents and submitting a complete adoption dossier, the Allerts waited for the agency to secure travel to the orphanage where the two girls lived. Months passed and the defendant continued stringing them along with various excuses.

The prospective parents eventually learned from other adoption agencies that “reserving” children is illegal, Allert said, charging Mozes with using a bait-and-switch scam to bilk trusting families out of money.

“Orson used children as bait,” he said, attributing Mozes’ actions to greed, lack of integrity and self-worth, and an inability to tell the truth.

In 2007, the adoption scam started caving in on the defendant, who fled to Florida shortly after divorcing his wife. In Miami, he moved in with a woman who he has said he plans to marry while in prison.

Despite being featured on the television program America’s Most Wanted, Mozes remained on the lam for more than a year. Law enforcement ultimately picked him up on an unrelated issue and discovered his arrest warrant out of Santa Barbara.

Kristy Chulze believes she may have been one of the last victims of Mozes’ adoption scam. In a statement read aloud by Senior Deputy District Attorney Paula Waldman, Chulze described how she had wired the defendant $3,000 — on top of a $10,000 fee she already paid — just one day before he fled town.

“Did you travel first-class on our dime?” Chulze wrote.

Tina Howard had a longer experience with the defendant, according to her statement read by Waldman. She had been referred to three different boys during the course of two years.

After receiving photos and videos of the first child, and preparing a room for his arrival, Howard said Mozes told her that he had been adopted through another agency due to a mix-up. The second referral ended when Mozes said the boy’s aunt took him from the orphanage.

Howard said Mozes would yell and curse at her on the phone when she questioned him, threatening to stop the adoption process unless she sent more money.

“He emotionally raped each and every one of us,” she wrote. “To Orson, it was about the money. To us, it was about our child.”

While some victims urged the judge to hand down a stricter sentence, Waldman told the court that there is a general sense of relief and closure now that criminal proceedings are coming to a close.

She added that many victims initially didn’t want to write victim impact statements, mainly because they didn’t feel it would make a difference, but she talked a handful into describing their experiences.

“They were hoping that if even just one of [the statements] would get through to Mr. Mozes, it would be worth it,” Waldman said.

The defendant, who sat shackled and occasionally leaned over to converse with his attorney, showed little reaction to the emotional words of his victims.

How he will pay back hundreds of thousands of dollars in restitution remains unknown. When authorities arrested Mozes, they also seized $300,000, including sacks of gold coins and a trunk of cash, according to court documents.

But the future use of those funds is unclear. Mozes’ ex-wife, Christen Brown, has sought legal action to award that money to her as child support.

Judge George Eskin, evidently not expecting the barrage of legal documents on the issue that rained down on him in the past few days, asked for a full hearing as he was unclear about new legislation relevant to the topic.

“I’m simply not prepared to wing it off the seat of my pants,” he said, ruling that the funds remain frozen until arguments can be heard during a hearing scheduled for next month.

Mozes, meanwhile, will be transferred to state prison with 225 days of jail time already credited and begin serving his sentence.