I found this news story because Focus on Children has a Ukrainian adoption program. They are an adoption agency licensed with the state of Utah.

What a huge mess and heart ache for Samoans and Americans. And while this investigation is just focused on adoptions from Samoa, the U.S. Attorney office may also look at Focus on Children's activities in their other adoption programs.

It appears that Samoan birth families are talking with American adoptive families. And in a few cases children have been returned to Samoa... to their first family.

Seven owners and managers of a Utah-based international adoption agency have been indicted on charges they ran a baby-smuggling operation out of Samoa.

Federal officials unsealed a 135-count indictment against Focus on Children, a Salt Lake City-incorporated company based in Wellsville, and its owners, Scott Banks, 46, and his wife, Karen Banks, 45, along with five employees.

The indictment alleges employees of Focus on Children systematically misled birth parents in Samoa into signing away rights to their children while telling adoptive parents in the United States that the children had been abandoned and were orphans.

U.S. Attorney for Utah Brett Tolman called the allegations some of the most "shocking and appalling" he has ever seen.

"This case is one in which there are victims on both sides," Tolman told the media during a news conference Thursday.

Federal investigators say more than 80 children had been adopted by families in about 13 U.S. cities, including some in Utah.

Utahns ran baby scam, feds say