Americans in Haiti Charged with Kidnapping: Planned to take Kids to Hotel

So now we find out that there never was an orphanage in the Dominican Republic and Laura Silsby (above, giving thumbs up), the leader of this New Life Children's Refuge, faces a number of legal cases back at home in Idaho. Silsby and her nine cohorts have been charged with kidnapping by a Haitian magistrate.

The Americans, most members of two Idaho churches, said they were rescuing abandoned children and orphans from a nation that UNICEF says had 380,000 even before the catastrophic Jan. 12 quake.

But at least two-thirds of the children, who range in age from 2 to 12, have parents who gave them away because they said the Americans promised the children a better life.

The investigating judge, who interviewed the missionaries Tuesday and Wednesday, found sufficient evidence to charge them for trying to take the children across the border in to the Dominican Republic on Jan. 29 without documentation, (defense attorney for the Americans) Edwin Coq said.

Each was charged with one count of kidnapping, which carries a sentence of five to 15 years in prison, and one of criminal association, punishable by three to nine years. Coq said the case would be assigned a judge and a verdict could take three months. Source: 10 Americans charged in Haiti with kidnapping, Associated Press

According to press accounts, there is testimony that Laura Silsby was explicitly told that certain documents were needed before transporting the children out of Haiti. Further, Silsby lied about the children being orphans and Silsby lied about there being an orphanage in the Dominican Republic. Silsby had negotiated to rent hotel rooms to house the children and the adults tending to them.

The Dominican consul in Haiti, Carlos Castillo, told the AP on Thursday that the day the Americans departed for the border, Silsby visited him and said he had a document from Dominican migration officials authorizing her to extract the children from Haiti.

Castillo said he warned Silsby that if she lacked adoption papers signed by the appropriate Haitian officials her mission would be considered child trafficking. "We were very specific," he said.

Back home in Idaho, Silsby faces questions about her business practices. As many as nine unpaid wage claims by employees of PersonalShopper.com, the online shopping business she founded and for which she is listed as CEO. One of those claims alleges the company owes the employee more than $22,000.

A Roman Catholic official in the Dominican Republic, meanwhile, told the AP that Silsby had agreed to rent 45 rooms at a former hotel owned by the Church in Cabarete, a northern beach resort.

Silsby agreed to rent the rooms for $7,000 a month and solicited a list of required repairs, said Jose Hidalgo, the real estate agent who brokered the deal. Source: 10 Americans charged in Haiti with kidnapping, Associated Press

Hmmm...could it be that Laura Silsby needed to raise some cash to deal with the legal claims against her and jumped at the chance to take advantage of some poor Haitian children and their parents to get paid - i.e. raise donations? That's how I see it. We'll soon see if Silsby proves me wrong.