The Tangled Accounting Mess of the Goodyears and the Adoption Agency

This adoption agency story just keeps getting deeper, and I'm sure as accountants sort through the tangle, they'll find many questionable transactions.

A great number of questions still remain about how deep the Goodyears were with this supposed non-profit Christian group.

We know that his company Constant Energy Inc. is named as one of the creditors, and we know that Valerie Goodyear was one of the original employees of the agency, and was still employed by them at the time of the bankruptcy.

In his disclosure to the ethics Commissioner we find the following information:

Assets:• Co-owner with my spouse of Constant Energy Inc., a private real estate holding company.

Liabilities:• Mortgage, jointly with spouse, with the Royal Bank of Canada;• Guarantor, jointly with spouse, on a mortgage with Merix Financial – Paradigm Quest Inc.;• Guarantor, jointly with spouse, on a line of credit with Royal Bank of Canada.

Spouse’s source of income in the last 12 months:• Employment income from Imagine Adoptions

Spouse’s/ activities:• President, officer and member of the board of directors of Constant Energy Inc.
Signature Date: 2009/02/25
Name: Gary Goodyear

You can see that he lists his wife's income source as Imagine Adoption and apparently she had worked with them for several years.

Another aside from this terrible story is that nine of the children scheduled to be adopted to families in Canada, were actually taken from their own families illegally, so had to be returned.

MP's firm linked to adoption group
Bankrupt agency rented office space from company owned by Goodyear and wife
Toronto Star
Jul 18, 2009
Brian Caldwell
WATERLOO REGION RECORD

CAMBRIDGE, Ont. – A company owned by federal cabinet minister Gary Goodyear and his wife rented office space to an adoption agency that collapsed this week amid concerns about suspect expenses. Valerie Goodyear, co-owner with her husband of Constant Energy Inc., also worked for the agency – Kids Link International Adoption Agency – for several years before it went bankrupt.

The failure of the Cambridge-based organization, which operated under the name Imagine Adoption, shocked up to 450 Canadian families trying to adopt children from overseas. Their hopes and investments – $20,000 or more in some cases – are in jeopardy as ankruptcy trustees and government officials scramble to sort out the situation ....

Goodyear and Friends Live High Off the Hog While Families Grieve

As the story unfolds about the adoption agency, and it's ties to a company co-owned by Gary Goodyear and his wife, it's bankruptcy and questionable financial practices; many families are grieving over children they never met, but were promised.

This is more than just another Conservative scandal, because this one involves heart wrenching stories of couples who just wanted a child, and paid out thousands of dollars to the Goodyear agency, expecting that their dream would be fulfilled.

However, the directors of the agency, had other dreams. ... money. Apparently the buying and selling of children is pretty lucrative, but while the Goodyears and pals tugged at the heartstrings over the plight of these poor Ethiopian children, the only thing that got tugged was the victims' wallets.

Initailly the MP from Cambridge said that he wasn't involved in the agency's finances, but douments show that he is trying to collect back rent for three properties supposedly leased by the agency, despite the fact that they only occupied one of his spaces. His wife is an employee.

Bankrupt adoption agency lists Lexus among its assets
CBC News
Friday, July 17, 2009

An Ontario company specializing in international adoptions that went into receivership this week lists two luxury vehicles, including a $50,000 Lexus, as assets along with $500,000 in the bank, according to bankruptcy documents.

Kids Link International Adoption Agency, which runs Imagine Adoption, based in Cambridge, Ont., posted a bankruptcy notice on its website Monday. For the last two years, it had helped Canadians adopt children from Ethiopia, Ghana and Ecuador. As many as 400 Canadian families who are waiting anxiously to find out when they will be united with their adopted children are listed as unsecured creditors in the documents, posted online through the appointed bankruptcy trustee, BDO Dunwoody.

The documents show the non-profit organization leased the Lexus from a Cambridge dealership and a Nissan Pathfinder worth $30,000 from a Toronto dealer. The documents list $800,000 in fees collected from families — some of
whom say they paid as much as $20,000 for an adoption.

Adoption agency's bankruptcy devastates families
HAYLEY MICK
Globe and Mail
July 15, 2009

An agency that helps Canadians adopt children from Africa has filed for bankruptcy, creating an uncertain future for scores of children and financial and emotional hardship for their prospective new parents. Kids Link International Adoption Agency made the announcement yesterday, shocking an estimated 200 families who are in the process of adopting children from Ethiopia and Ghana.

"I can't even tell you how devastated we are," said a woman who asked not to be identified. She and her husband have given the agency almost $20,000 and expected to meet their adopted Ethiopian child within months. "We're done. We have no money left. We can't do this again." Kids Link, which operates out of Cambridge, Ont., under the name Imagine Adoption, posted a notice on its website yesterday saying the agency's board of directors met on July 10 and decided to pull the plug.

"It was clear that the funds in the bank accounts are not sufficient to service the families in the Kids Link Program," said the letter written by Susan E. Taves of the financial recovery services company BDO Dunwoody Ltd.