To catch a baby broker

This is baby central. It’s the nickname for a cluster of luxury hotels in downtown Guatemala City teeming with Americans cooing over children they hope to adopt -- and meeting with adoption facilitators who are handling their cases.

Facilitators here are hired by adoption agencies in the U.S. to handle everything from finding eligible children to overseeing paperwork. When Dateline began to investigate Guatemalan adoptions more than a year ago, the names of certain facilitators came up over and over again, accused by former clients of making promises and taking checks but often not delivering children.

Victoria Corderi: It was the opposite of your expectations?
Rick: Absolutely.
Jill: My expectations were absolutely crushed. We felt like people didn't care. It was just all about the money.

We met and spoke with dozens of people with heartbreaking tales. And at the center of many of their stories was this man. His name is Athanasios Kollias, a Greek man who ran restaurants in Los Angeles before moving to Guatemala eight years ago. Most people know him simply as Thanassis.

Victoria Corderi: How would you describe Thanassis?
Stacy: Baby stealer.
Sean: He's ruthless.
Jill: Sneaky.

They come from different states across the country and used different adoption agencies .. But what they have in common, they say, is being victimized by Thanassis.
Rick: I think grifter is the right word. Someone just trying to make money, doesn't care who he takes  advantage of, no conscience about it.

Jill Casassa says she and her husband were in the process of adopting these twins, when they learned that even though Thanassis had taken their $18,000 down payment, he'd already given the twins to another family.

Victoria Corderi: These children were clearly taken?
Jill: Clearly taken.
Victoria Corderi: Another couple had a referral, had paid money. It was in process.
Jill: Yes. It was devastating

The Casassas already have two biological children, but because they never got back any of their money, or paperwork Jill blames Thanassis for permanently crushing their dream of adopting.

Jill: Our heart's desire to adopt has been stripped from us and the end result is loss. We've lost everything.

Sean Walsh says his adoption of this brother and sister was almost finished when it fell apart because the paperwork Thanassis submitted was falsified.

Sean: We actually put the Christmas card together and everything. Um, and then, when it fell apart, it was like we're in this state of emotional suspended animation.

Sean and his wife had to begin the adoption of the children from scratch - a process that took years, and cost them tens of thousands of dollars more than they'd already paid.

Sean: You start looking in their eyes. And they're looking at you. And they're identifying with you. And you-- you can't-- it's hard to give that up. I mean, they're real.

Rick and Michelle Wageman were adopting these two children. Rick says Evan, the little boy, suffered needlessly because Thanassis neglected to get him basic medical care. These photos show him covered in scabies sores.

Rick: In his sleep, he would thrash. And he would scratch himself. And he would rub his legs together like a cricket and it was horrible for me to watch.

In Guatemala, prospective parents are allowed to visit children while the adoption is being completed, and even take temporary custody of them.

When Rick and his wife visited Evan, he says the boy's health was alarming. In addition to all the scabs and scars, he was malnourished, feverish and lethargic ... Yet the doctor's report sent by Thanassis, dated just three days before they arrived, calls Evan a "healthy child."

Rick: There's no mention of this scabies, this skin rash, whatever you want to call it. There's no mention in this report.

Victoria Corderi: The pictures show it clearly, all over his legs, and scars.
Rick: Yeah. Seeping scars that he scratches and they end up bleeding all over

And he says, despite repeated promises from Thanassis that it would be taken care of, every time they returned to visit, Evan's sores were worse.

Rick: We were told to our face that our children would be seeing a doctor every month. And that never happened.

Stacy Bernstein found out the little girl she was adopting was never really eligible. She says Thanassis tricked the girl's birth mother into giving her up.

Stacy: I don't think her birth mother decided that she couldn't raise her. I think he said 'you need to do this' and kind of conned her into it.

Stacy's adoption fell apart when the Guatemalan agency that approves adoptions became suspicious and launched an investigation.

Stacy: The government suspected that the birth mother's signature was fraudulent.

In March of 2005, the U.S. embassy in Guatemala banned Thanassis from being involved in U.S. Adoptions. The State Department would not give details but said it was because of quote "shady dealings."

Even so, Thanassis appears to be still very much in business -- and ready to do business. And we were ready, too, as we took our hidden cameras and set up shop as a new agency in town -- Network Adoptions.

(Hidden camera)
Victoria Corderi: If things work out, we can do business, all right?
Thanassis: Why not.

There's a new U.S. adoption agency in Guatemala City looking to make contacts and there seems to be plenty of interest.

Dateline set up the agency, called "Network Adoptions," by creating an official-looking Web site and printing up business cards. I posed as "Vicky Keane" the agency's president  while two Dateline producers acted as my employees.

To let people know about us, we visited private orphanages and adoption facilitators wearing hidden cameras, acting as if we were anxious to do business.

(Hidden camera)
Dateline: Can families get regular photos and medical updates?
Facilitator: We usually send reports every Friday.

We also met with some jaladoras - or baby finders. They work for facilitators and agencies, searching for babies who can be adopted. This woman tells us she's paid $5,000 for each baby she refers – and $600 goes to the birth mother.

Paying Guatemalan mothers for their babies is illegal. There are suspicions that some poor women -- even teenagers -- produce babies just to make the cash. But this jaladora says the payments are common.

One of the facilitators she works with is Thanassis, the very same facilitator who caused these four people so much grief. Remember, he's banned by the U.S. embassy, a critical fact most of them say their agencies failed to reveal.

Stacy: My agency wasn't upfront about that.
Sean: The good agencies won't work with the scum bags down in Guatemala.
Victoria Corderi: Is Thanassis one of those scum bags?
Sean: Absolutely. I mean, he is a liar.

Sean Walsh’s adoption was already in process when Thanassis was banned, but the others say their agencies knowingly worked with a shady facilitator.

Jill: Lie after lie after lie after lie.

Dateline wanted to find out how easy it is to do business with the man who is forbidden from handling American adoptions. It turns out, he's hardly incognito. It took us no time to spot him in Guatemala City, mingling with clients and going over paperwork.

Posing as our make believe adoption agency, we arranged to meet him. We asked him to come to a suite at the Radisson hotel, which we'd rigged with hidden cameras. Getting him there was easy - when he heard Network Adoptions was a new agency with lots of wealthy clients, he was all too eager to talk.

We offer Thanassis a glass of wine, and he quickly settles in comfortably on the couch, turning on the charm.

(Hidden camera)
Thanassis: Well, cheers, and welcome to Guatemala!
Vicky Corderi: Cheers!
Jane: Yes, welcome.
Victoria Corderi: Let's talk, and if things work out, we can do business, all right?
Thanassis: Why not.

Within minutes, the man who is banned by the U.S. Embassy is bragging about how busy he is --with babies who are all headed to the United States.

(Hidden camera)
Thanassis: You know, last year I sent 167 babies home.
Victoria Corderi: 167 babies?
Thanassis: Yeah, and this year you know, it's going to be even more, you know.
Victoria Corderi: Are you telling me the truth?
Thanassis: (raises hand in swearing motion) I swear on God, you know.

Throughout our time with him, his phone rings frequently. The conversations deal with babies.

(Hidden camera)
Thanassis on phone in Spanish: Boys? Yes. Yes. And girls.

In between interruptions, we get to business. Thanassis breaks down his costs, which are about the same as what other Guatemalan facilitators charge.

(Hidden camera)
Thanassis: My price is 20 for a girl.
Victoria Corderi: Twenty thousand?
Thanassis: For girl.
Victoria Corderi: For a girl.
Thanassis: Yes, and 19 for a boy.
Victoria Corderi: Nineteen for a boy.

And I read from an imaginary list of clients.

(Hidden camera)
Thanassis: What are you looking for? Like, what kind of the babies you looking for?
Victoria Corderi: Infant or toddler girl -- boy or girl or older child. Oh, and there's one who wants twins--
Thanassis: Ah, and I can have tomorrow twin girls.
Victoria Corderi: You can?
Thanassis: Twin boys and twin girls. The girls I haven't -- I haven't offered yet.
Victoria Corderi: The boys are definitely gone?
Thanassis: I don't give babies until I’m 100 percent sure they are adoptable.

But remember Jill Casassa? She says Thanassis is lying. She was in the process of adopting twins through him that she says he knew were not adoptable - because they were already being adopted by someone else.

We also ask Thanassis about rumors we've heard about sick children being passed off as healthy.

(Hidden camera)
Victoria Corderi: Kids who are sick but they cover up the paper-- the medical paperwork-- as far as how sick they are.
Thanassis: (shakes hand here in dismissive motion) Look --
Victoria Corderi: Is that true?
Thanassis: Can be true...

But he assures us his babies are healthy, treated regularly by embassy-approved doctors.

(Hidden camera)
Thanassis: Guatemalan babies is beautiful babies, and the most healthy of babies – healthy.

He's right about one thing -- because they get more attention in foster homes, or private orphanages, most Guatemalan children up for adoption are very healthy. But apparently not in every case -- remember Rick Wageman? He says one of the children he was adopting had health problems Thanassis ignored.

We also tell Thanassis we're worried about dealing with facilitators who forge documents or place kidnapped children up for adoption. He assures us his operation is on the up and up.

(Hidden camera)
Victoria Corderi: They say there's a lot of corruption but -you know
Thanassis: There is, you know, but on the top.
Victoria Corderi: People selling babies--
Thanassis: (shaking his finger ) No, no, no, no, no/
Victoria Corderi: No? Kidnapping?
Thanassis: No, no, no … We send people investigate-- to the municipalities -- to make sure they're not fake papers.

But both stacy Bernstein and sean Walsh say their adoptions through Thanassis fell apart because of fake papers.

Still, in our meeting, Thanassis hints at none of that. The only thing this banned facilitator really seems  interested in is getting us to trust him.

(Hidden camera)
Thanassis: You don't have to worry about that, we worry about this, you see. That's what I mean, you have to trust the people … Here, here. The documents for this boy because you asked me for it.

Thanassis is so eager to do business with network adoptions, he wastes no time bringing us prospects. We have no intention of going any further in the process, but as long as he believes our agency is ready and willing, we can push to see how willing he is to cut corners. What he suggests is both troubling - and illegal.

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