Seattle International Adoptions
Seattle-based adoption agency run by Lynn Devin that processed U.S. families' Cambodian adoptions arranged by her sister Lauryn Galindo; both agreed to forfeit the agency's profits after 2003-2004 federal fraud pleas.
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- Location
- Seattle, Washington
- Country
- United States
- Type
- Adoption agency, Seattle-based
- Operator
- Run by Lynn Devin, who screened and processed American families' applications
- Partner operation
- Worked with Lauryn Galindo's Cambodia-based facilitation of the same adoptions
- Scale
- Facilitated roughly 700-800 Cambodian children's adoptions by American families between 1997 and 2001, per Vice
- Legal outcome
- Devin and Galindo agreed to forfeit all illegal profits made through the agency, including cash and real property, per the U.S. Department of Justice
Overview
Seattle International Adoptions was a Seattle-based adoption agency that served as the U.S. processing arm for a Cambodia-to-United-States adoption pipeline run jointly by Lynn Devin and her sister, Lauryn Galindo. While Galindo worked in Cambodia arranging placements, Devin ran the agency’s U.S. side, screening American families and processing their applications. The two sisters together facilitated the adoption of roughly 700 to 800 Cambodian children by American families between 1997 and 2001 (Vice). Both were later prosecuted on federal fraud charges tied to the agency’s operations, and agreed to forfeit its profits.
Business model and role in the adoption pipeline
The Cambodia Daily’s 2002 profile of the operation, independently re-read for this profile, described Devin, “a social worker,” as the person who screened prospective adoptive parents for suitability, while Galindo selected a child based on availability and the family’s preferences. The paper reported a typical total adoption fee of $9,000, of which $3,500 went to donations — including $400 paid directly to the relinquishing orphanage for each child — and the remaining $5,500 went toward processing costs, in a country the paper noted had no formal, standardized adoption fee of its own. The same article reported that Devin had separately drawn up detailed proposed reforms to the Cambodian adoption process, including a central registry of children available for adoption, standardized fees, a ban on facilitators running their own orphanages, and random assignment of orphans to homes to reduce the profit motive — proposals Galindo said she discussed with Cambodia’s Minister of Labor and Social Affairs and other officials under the label “Safe Children’s Act” (The Cambodia Daily).
The fraud case against the agency
The Phnom Penh Post reported that the federal charges against Devin covered ten identified adoption cases occurring between January 1997 and December 2001, the period during which U.S. adoptions from Cambodia were eventually suspended, and that court documents described the pair having “faked documents to falsely pass off the adopted children as orphans and created fictitious identities for the children” to speed adoptions and increase profits (The Phnom Penh Post). The Garden Island, a Kauai, Hawaii newspaper covering a local adoptive family’s separate civil suit against Galindo, reported that the federal indictment specifically named both Devin and “their Seattle International Adoptions” in describing two cases in which an ill baby was substituted for a healthy one without correcting the child’s identity on U.S. visa paperwork (The Garden Island). Following Devin’s December 2003 guilty plea, the U.S. Department of Justice’s June 2004 press release described the business as “a Seattle-based company” and stated that Devin and Galindo had agreed that “all illegal profits made by them through SIA, including cash and real property, will be forfeited” (U.S. Department of Justice).
What this profile does not claim
This profile does not state when Seattle International Adoptions was founded, what its formal corporate or nonprofit structure was, or whether it held a Washington state adoption-agency license or any national accreditation — no independent source located for this profile confirms those details. It does not state a closure or dissolution date for the agency; the sources read here confirm its 2001 operations and its 2004 forfeiture obligations but do not describe what became of it afterward. It also does not resolve the discrepancy between sources that name the agency “Seattle International Adoptions” (U.S. Department of Justice, The Cambodia Daily) and Vice’s use of “Seattle International Adoption” — see the open items above. This profile does not describe Galindo’s separate, Cambodia-based conduct in detail; that is covered in FactsLedger’s Cambodian adoption scandal profile and in the profile of Lynn Devin.
Timeline
- 1997-2001
- Seattle International Adoptions operates as the U.S. processing agency through which American families applied to adopt Cambodian children placed by Lauryn Galindo's in-country operation; the two sisters together facilitated roughly 700-800 such adoptions in this period.
- 2002-06-22
- The Cambodia Daily's profile of Galindo describes Devin, "a social worker," screening adoptive parents for suitability through the agency, and reports a typical total adoption fee of $9,000, of which $3,500 went to donations (including $400 directly to the relinquishing orphanage per child) and $5,500 to processing costs.
- 2003-12-10
- Devin, described in contemporaneous reporting as running the agency, pleads guilty to conspiracy to commit visa fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering arising from its operations.
- 2004-06
- The U.S. Department of Justice states that Devin and Galindo have agreed to forfeit all illegal profits made by them "through SIA," including cash and real property.
What we could not verify
These claims came up in research and could not be confirmed. They are recorded here rather than published as fact or quietly dropped. If you hold a source that settles one, please tell us.
- Source naming is inconsistent: the U.S. Department of Justice and The Cambodia Daily both name the agency "Seattle International Adoptions" (plural "Adoptions"), while Vice's reporting names it "Seattle International Adoption" (singular). This profile uses the plural form, matching the two independent tier1 sources.
- No independent source located for this profile confirms the agency's founding date, its formal legal or corporate structure, or whether it held a Washington state adoption-agency license or national accreditation. These are not claimed here.
- No independent source located for this profile states whether the agency was formally dissolved, deregistered, or simply stopped operating after Cambodian adoptions to the U.S. were suspended in 2001; this profile does not assert a closure date.
Sources
5 sources (3 tier 1, 2 tier 2), each opened and read against the claim it supports. Every source is independent of the subject; no first-party material is cited. See the source policy.
This profile is built on the U.S. Department of Justice's June 2004 press release, The Phnom Penh Post's and The Cambodia Daily's contemporaneous reporting, a July 2004 report in the Kauai, Hawaii newspaper The Garden Island, and Vice's later reporting — all independently fetched and re-read for this profile rather than carried over from FactsLedger's Lynn Devin or Cambodian adoption scandal profiles. Wikipedia's "Cambodian adoption scandal" article was checked only as a lead index and is not cited here.
- #434: Hawaii Resident Pleads Guilty in Cambodian Adoption Conspiracy Supports: Description of the agency as "a Seattle-based company," the abbreviation "SIA," and confirmation that Devin and Galindo agreed to forfeit all illegal profits made through it, including cash and real property.
- US adoption agent guilty of visa fraud Supports: Confirmation that the agency, run by Devin, was named in charges covering ten cases between January 1997 and December 2001, and that court documents described falsified orphan status and fictitious identities used to speed adoptions and increase profits.
- Is Lauryn Galindo a Baby-Buyer, a Benefactor, or Both? Supports: The agency's fee structure, Devin's role as a social worker screening adoptive parents, and Devin's own proposed reforms to Cambodia's adoption process.
- Adoption nightmare continues; Galindo convicted, but heartbreak lives on Supports: Confirmation that Galindo's indictment named both Devin and the agency directly in describing two adoptions where an ill baby was swapped for a healthy one without correcting the child's identity on visa paperwork.
- These Adoptees Were Brought to the US as Babies. Now Some Fear They Were Stolen. Supports: Confirmation that the agency was one of the agencies in Galindo's network and that the sisters together facilitated roughly 800 Cambodian adoptions between 1997 and 2001.
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