A12 From Page One adopt from A1
Council on International Chil- dren’s Services. Three years ago, just 30 percent of the group’s 158 adoption services providers of- fered domestic and foster place- ments, says council President Tom DiFilipo. Now 85 percent do. “Families are looking for every op- tion they can,” he says. The most recent national num- bers, from 2008, show a 7 percent increase in adoptions of foster children. The overwhelming ma- jority of those are by foster par- ents or relatives, but DiFilipo and others say they’ve seen a discern- able rise in interest by nonrela- tives. The Rollins family adopted 13- year-old Frenice through a Barker Foundation program called Proj- ect Wait No Longer, which match- es adoptive parents with foster children 6 and older. So far, 20 children have been
matched or placed — a small per- centage of total adoptions at Barker, a nonprofit group that has been doing Washington area adoptions for 65 years. But appli- cations and interest are up this year, says project director Bev Clarke.
Some parents fear they won’t
be effective with children who may have been neglected or abused, she says. Not all are suit- ed, but “we try to educate our families that what the kids need are stable homes where they can be safe, and to have people who . . . will be consistent, who will stick with them regardless of the challenges along the way.”
Eager to adopt
For Sharon and Michael Rollins, both 43, the leap of faith was not hard to make. Sharon, a real estate appraiser, was adopted as a baby and decided long ago that she, too, would adopt. She and Michael, a management spe- cialist for Verizon, wed 12 years ago, and he shared her views
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SATURDAY, JULY 31, 2010 Prince George’s couple adopts a teenager to make a new family
about “the tremendous need,” he says. They were open to a child — or siblings — ages 6 to 16. “We did not have any reservations about age whatsoever,” Sharon says. “To look for the perfect child, or some- one to be a mirror image of the parent, that is not realistic.” Frenice’s arrival followed a
lengthy process of home studies, recommendations, medical exams, financial reports and background checks. At one point, the couple switched agencies. Twice, they had letdowns when children they selected were adopted by their foster families, who get priority. In 2008, Sharon gave up. “I’m
done,” she recalls thinking. Then a social worker e-mailed
Michael a video clip of a curly- haired girl of 11 living in Colorado. What came through was her spir- ited personality. In the clip, Fren- ice told her interviewer that she had no idea what her stuffed bear was saying into his cellphone: “It’s none of my business.” “My heart was already there,”
Michael says. Sharon watched and knew deep inside: This was the child. In Colorado, Frenice saw pho- tos of Sharon and Michael, who met two of her criteria: They were also African American and lived out of state. She took the chance, but years of moving through fos- ter care made her wary. “The first couple families we-
ren’t really that bad, but as it goes and goes and goes, it just feels like nobody wants you,” she says. “Af- ter the first six homes, it became, ‘Okay, I’m moving again, who cares?’ ” The way her parents see it, she
suffered greatly in foster care and was separated from a younger sis- ter along the way. “I’ve kind of de- veloped a thing where if I say I’m not going to get connected, I don’t,” Frenice acknowledges. After getting to know her by phone, Sharon and Michael flew
SARAH L. VOISIN/THE WASHINGTON POST
First Baptist Church of Glenarden is an important part of life for the Rollins family. Sharon belongs to a ministry for the deaf, Michael is part of a men’s group and Frenice participates in a youth ministry.
to Colorado. Then Frenice came to Maryland. On June 30, 2009, she returned with Sharon, and as far as the Rollinses were concerned, the three became a family.
Challenges and change
Frenice is sitting beside her mother on a couch in their co- lonial-style home, reliving a year that changed her life. She lays her head on her mother’s knee. Her mother gently strokes her hair, pulled back in a ponytail. Frenice was sent to seventh
grade at Grace Brethren Christian School in Clinton, which her par- ents sought for its structure and academics. But they say their em- phasis on education came as a culture shock for their daughter. “No one ever asked me about
Te Wyly brothers’ trading network Te SEC has charged billionaire brothers Sam and Charles Wyly with fraud for allegedly using offshore accounts to trade stock in companies without disclosing their ownership. Tis is how the fraud worked, according to the SEC complaint.
UNITED STATES
Te Wyly brothers sat on the board of four public companies and owned large amounts of the shares. Tey were required by law to report their trading activites.
Te Wylys transferred their securities to entities they owned on the Isle of Man.
Wyly brothers
Te Wylys gave securities trading orders to various “protectors,” including their lawyer and an accountant in the Cayman Islands.
OFFSHORE SYSTEM
Over $550 million earned in trading was transferred to the Wyly brothers.
my homework before,” Frenice volunteers. Now her parents monitor her
grades and her assignments. They limit television. They insist she read and write over the summer. But they also urge her to tell them about what she loves or wants to try. At school, Frenice ex- celled at hurdles on the track team. She was a cheerleader. This summer, she went to fashion camp and now debate camp, where she is honing her oratory. “She keeps saying she’s gonna
debate me,” Michael says with a laugh.
Recently, her parents bought
Frenice a set of paints, which she’d always wanted. “She’s a very creative child,” Sharon says. Michael takes Frenice to ride
roller coasters at Six Flags, and they volunteer together at a nurs- ing home in Arlington County. As a family, they like go-karts, kara- oke and watching movies side-by- side, sharing popcorn. Mother and daughter shop to-
gether, which can create conflict. “Wednesday we had our first suc- cessful shopping trip,” Sharon says, teasing. Frenice rolls her eyes. They
have been picking out clothes to- gether for a year — always at odds about what is appropriate for a girl her age. “I’m picking up some of your
habits,” Frenice tells her mother. Every week, they go to First Baptist Church of Glenarden, where Michael is part of a Chris- tian men’s group, Sharon belongs
to a ministry for the deaf and Frenice participates in a youth ministry. Family life has made Frenice
part of a larger circle, with ex- tended family in Ohio and Michi- gan. She now has more than 50 cousins. Her new grandparents are positively doting. “Frenice is perfect for them [Sharon and Mi- chael], challenges and all,” says Virgie Rollins, her grandmother. Life with an adolescent also meant a transition for Sharon and Michael, who received parent training at Barker and go to a sup- port group. They also have met with social workers and take Frenice to her required therapy. “It’s been a journey,” says Shar- on, and not always a smooth one. Frenice was not used to being challenged about her behavior, her parents say. She was not used to letting other people decide what her best interests were. She tested them. “Frenice just had to believe
that, at the first sight of some- thing going wrong, they weren’t going to leave her,” says Celeste Owens, a psychologist and close friend who admires how Michael and Sharon talk things out with their teenager. One difficult day, Sharon told
Frenice not to wear a pair of spe- cial shoes to school. The teen promised but snuck them to school anyway. Her parents found out and told her how serious it was to violate their trust, to go back on her word. Frenice angrily told them she wanted to go back to Colorado. Her parents discussed it all in de- tail, told her how much they loved her and let her know that they would not force her to stay. The adoption was up to her, too. A few months later, Frenice ap- proached Sharon about donating her luggage to a charity. Sharon asked why. “I want to give it away,” she
said. “I’m never going to leave.”
stgeorged@washpost.com
Political operatives seize on fallout of the SEC case against Wyly brothers
wyly from A1 Protectors Companies
Te protectors gave orders to trustees at offshore trusts that were supposed to have control over shell companies.
Broker
Money exchange Control
Securities SOURCE: SEC and staff reporting Political contributions
Sam and Charles Wyly and their wives have spent about $5 million on federal political contributions in the past 20 years. They reached national notice in 2000 as prominent supporters of Texas Gov. George W. Bush’s presidential campaign.
By lawmaker
Te Wylys’ longtime broker handled the trading of more than 14 million shares of their stock, worth over $750 million.
Trading orders passed from the Wylys to the protectors to the trustees were carried out.
ALICIA PARLAPIANO AND ALBERTO CUADRA /THE WASHINGTON POST
Trusts and shell companies
lieve and relied on their lawyers and accountants in structuring business arrangements. The fallout of the SEC suit rip- pled through Washington and the country Friday, with Democrats using the opportunity to paint Re- publicans as indebted to shady contributors. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Com- mittee called on Rep. Pete Ses- sions (Tex.), who leads the Nation- al Republican Congressional Committee, to return donations from the Wylys. The brothers have given more than $160,000 to the NRCC and $35,000 to Sessions over two decades. “NRCC Chairman Pete Ses-
sions’s choice is simple: Stand up for what’s right by returning this tainted campaign cash or let the Wylys’ dirty money continue help- ing House Republicans, even though it came from a massive fraud of American taxpayers us- ing foreign bank accounts,” DCCC spokesman Ryan Rudominer said.
Dick Armey $55,500
Lamar Smith $48,200
Phil Gramm $48,000
Kay Bailey Hutchison $46,400
Pete Sessions $35,000
Republicans responded by pointing out that Democrats and their party committees have re- ceived donations from campaign accounts of Rep. Charles B. Ran- gel, the New York Democrat fac- ing ethics charges. “The more im- portant question is when does the DCCC plan to donate the $2.5 mil- lion they have received from ethi- cally challenged Charlie Rangel, not to mention the nearly $1 mil- lion in campaign cash from him that vulnerable House Democrats are holding on to?” NRCC spokes- man Paul Lindsay said. The SEC probe was launched in 2004 after the agency was con- tacted by Bank of America, which sought to verify the Wylys’ off- shore assets, only to have the brothers refuse to comply. The Wylys fell under government scrutiny again in 2005 in a wide- ranging probe of offshore ac- counts by a Senate subcommittee.
Jeb Hensarling $30,200
Kay Granger $16,000
By political committee or party
Republicans for Clean Air* $2,500,000
Republican Governors Association $75,000
DalenPAC $17,500
Republican
National Committee $1,339,050
Republican Party of Texas $40,000
Republican Party of Iowa $13,042
Senatorial Committee $222,200
National Republican
Swith Boat Veterans for Truth* $30,000
National Republican
Congressional Comm. $160,500
2000 Republican House/ Senate Dinner Comm. $30,000
* Independent committees supporting former president George W. Bush.
Source: Center for Responsive Politics, Washington Post research.
Joe Barton $14,500
George W. Bush $13,000
John Cornyn $12,200
Cash in computing
Now in their mid-70s, Charles and Sam Wyly started their ca- reers at IBM. As recalled on the family Web site, the brothers quickly excelled. Together they founded University Computer Company, and only two years lat- er it went public, its stock rising year after year. The brothers ag- gressively used their earnings to invest in more businesses. In the early 1990s, the brothers began to look into how they could use tax shelters, according to a Senate probe, which concluded in 2006 and found that the Wylys used offshore accounts to hide their wealth. No charges were brought.
The brothers used an “armada”
of lawyers, brokers and others to transfer $190 million worth of stock options and warrants to nearly 60 offshore trusts and shell companies, according to the Sen- ate probe. Then they exercised those options and warrants, gen- erating $600 million in untaxed offshore dollars. They used the money to make loans to them- selves, finance business ventures and acquire real estate and art. As their 10 children and 17
grandchildren have come of age, they’ve enjoyed the fruits of the offshore accounts, according to SEC and Senate investigators. The brothers used offshore funds, for example, to buy an $11 million ranch for the family near Aspen, Colo., and to buy 20 portraits of family members at a cost of nearly $1 million. The brothers named their offshore entities after Loui- siana childhood locations: Lake Providence, where they were born; Delhi, where they went to high school; and Tensas, a bayou.
Role as shareholders
According to the SEC, the off- shore accounts were used for more than shielding the Wylys’ money from taxes. The brothers served together on the boards of four companies in which they owned large stakes: Michaels, a leading arts and crafts chain; technology firms Sterling Soft- ware and Sterling Commerce; and Scottish Annuity & Life Holdings. Large shareholders are re- quired under federal securities law to disclose trades, because other investors often use such trading as a gauge of a company’s health. But by concealing their ownership of companies through their offshore accounts, the Wylys were able to trade shares in these companies without letting the public know, the SEC said. Sometimes, the agency said, the
Wylys used their secret ownership to trade based on insider informa- tion. In 1999, the Wylys resolved to sell Sterling Software, a data- management company they had founded nearly two decades earli- er. Without filing the required dis- closures, the brothers, through their offshore accounts, created a complex and hard-to-track finan- cial instrument that would let them bet that Sterling’s shares would rise, according to SEC. Four months later, the behe- moth Computer Associates bought Sterling for $4 billion, net- ting the Wylys more than $30 mil- lion in profit, the SEC said. The Wylys, while allegedly hid- ing their money abroad, were not shy about using it to support causes at home. They have given to their alma mater, Louisiana Tech, as well as to Harvard Med-
ical School, animal shelters, the Salvation Army, centers to combat family violence and others. Some of the donations were tainted, according to the SEC. Sam Wyly gave $8 million of the offshore funds to his graduate school, the University of Michigan which named a building after him, according to the SEC. Charles Wyly gave $2.5 million in offshore funds to a church, the government says.
Ad campaign for Bush The Wylys also have long been
generous political donors, but reached national notice in 2000 as prominent supporters of then- Texas Gov. George W. Bush’s presi- dential campaign. With Bush locked in a divisive GOP primary battle with Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the Wyly brothers formed a third-party group, Republicans for Clean Air, which launched a $2 million television ad campaign on the eve of the primaries in New York, Ohio and California. The ads attacked McCain for voting against a federal solar pow- er bill and praised Bush for sign- ing an electric deregulation bill in Texas that required the cleanup of power plants that burn coal. Texas political consultant Rob Allyn, who produced the Wyly commer- cials, told the Houston Chronicle that Sam Wyly was motivated by McCain’s vote on the solar bill. In 2004, the Wylys helped fund
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, an- other third-party organization that ran controversial television ads attacking the military record of Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), Bush’s Democratic opponent. The Wylys were active donors through the Bush years, giving generously to scores of Repub- lican lawmakers and candidates, as well as to the Bush campaigns. But though they made appear- ances on the Republican donor circuit, the Wylys rarely jockeyed for face time with candidates. “They avoid the limelight,” said
Jim Francis, another major Bush donor from Dallas. “They’re not formal. Sam walks in the neigh- borhood every morning. Charles is quiet, is soft-spoken. Sam is soft-spoken also. They’re very gentle human beings.” The Wylys live in North Dallas and were described as casual friends with the Bushes. They speak from time to time with the former president and first lady. “They don’t go to dinner to-
gether,” Francis said. “They don’t play golf together.”
goldfarbz@washpost.com ruckerp@washpost.com
Staff writer Tim Farnam and research editor Alice Crites contributed to this report.
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