Locals sued over adoption money Couple say Marblehead company took $33K for child they never got

By Alan Burke

Staff writer

MARBLEHEAD — It isn't about the money, lawyer Ed Prisby says.

His clients, an Arlington couple, have filed a lawsuit claiming they were victimized after paying a Marblehead company to help them adopt a child from Eastern Europe. In the end, they say, American-International Children's Alliance left them heartbroken, childless and considerably poorer.

In a lawsuit filed at Salem Superior Court, Antonio and Antoinette Carchedi are charging that the owners of the company, Dragos Vranceanu and his wife, Kimberly Menard Vranceanu, used fraud, negligence and breach of contract to separate them from $33,000, some of it spent on a fruitless trip to Russia.

In response, lawyer Tony Metaxas, representing the Vranceanus, said that the Marbleheaders did their best in navigating the difficult world of Eastern European adoptions.

"Many of the allegations made against my clients are not true," Metaxas said.

The Carchedis, Metaxas said, are reacting emotionally after a bitter disappointment.

At one point, the Carchedis were introduced to their new "son," a 2-year-old Russian boy, only to realize later that the adoption would never happen.

"To have the whole thing fall through for them," Prisby said, "was just heartless." In the end, he said, the Carchedis did adopt a child, but it was no thanks to the Vranceanus.

The Carchedis' efforts to adopt began in 2002, centering on Romania, according to the lawsuit. Prisby said that Romania soon toughened its adoption laws, effectively killing the couple's hopes there.

"Menard and Vranceanu instead suggested attempting an adoption through Bulgaria," reads the complaint. The Carchedis claim they learned subsequently that Bulgaria had suspended foreign adoptions.

Next, they were urged to try Russia, where, according to the document, they soon realized that the Vranceanus' company had no contacts at all. While there, they were pressured to adopt unhealthy children before being introduced to Alexander, 2.

"They could not wait to adopt him and bring him to his new home in the United States," reads the suit, indicating that the Arlington couple had quickly fallen in "love" with the boy. But while they attempted to adopt they were unable to reach the Vranceanus for help, according to the suit.

Time passed, money was spent, but Alexander was lost to them.

"Russia is a big country," Mataxas countered. "The amount of experience and knowledge you need isn't just for Moscow." He indicated that the Carchedis were referred to a Russian adoption agency that, despite a history of success, went out of business.

United States-based Beacon House was also involved and expressed a willingness to keep looking, but the couple declined to continue.

In Romania, Mataxas said, the Carchedis were actually cleared to adopt a child but were victim to a law allowing family members or Romanian nationals to claim any potential adoptee.

"That did happen to the Carchedis," Mataxas said.

Mataxas said his clients went into the adoption business during the scandal over neglected Romanian orphans after the fall of communism.

"Did my clients arrange for many children to be adopted over a period of years?" he said. "Yes."

The business is a nonprofit, and while Mataxas did not recall the amount, he remembered that the salary earned by Kimberly Vranceanu was "extremely modest."

For some, the Vranceanus, who live part of the year in Romania, have proved elusive. According to Prisby, they could only be served process when he got a tip they would be in Marblehead for the holidays.

The pair has a home on exclusive Captain's Walk Lane. Dragos Vranceanu is a former president of the Marblehead Harbor Rotary Club, 2005 to 2006.

Margo Steiner, a Rotary member, recalled Vranceanu as "a generous guy." At one point, the club sent clothing and necessities to an orphanage in Romania that Vranceanu said was operated by his mother.

In time, he made fewer and fewer appearances at meetings, however, and was asked to resign. More recently, Steiner said, "We don't know where he is. We've been trying to locate him for over a year."

A spokesman for Treetops Capital, described as an international investment company based in New York, identified Vranceanu as a partner.

The Vranceanus' Marblehead house is owned by a trust, Prisby said, making it difficult to access in compensating the Carchedis. For that matter, he said, his clients aren't in this for money.

"They want an acknowledgment by Menard that she did wrong by them."