According to the Napa Valley Register newspaper, the local district attorney office has filed a suit against Ivan Jerdev and two other defendants for more than $1.5 million, and is seeking an injunction to officially close the Yunona USA adoption agency.
The agency allegedly obtained money from American families on the pretence that it would arrange the adoption of children from Russia and other foreign countries, the newspaper said.
Together with fellow defendants Nick Sims and Alex Nikolenko, Jerdev is charged with knowingly misleading clients and drawing up faulty contracts, as well as other fraud-related activities.
The DA's office claims that from 2003 the defendants obtained large sums of money from more than a dozen U.S. families wishing to adopt foreign children.
According to the authorities, the agency has never arranged a single adoption.
Napa authorities in November began an investigation that led to the confiscation of documents and equipment from the agency's office and the closure of its website.
The newspaper said that Jerdev had apparently left the U.S. and could be in Russia at present.
