On January 29, 2010, a group of ten American Baptist missionaries from Idaho attempted to cross the Haiti-Dominican Republic border with 33 Haitian children.
[5] The New Life Children's Refuge (NLCR) was founded in November 2009 by Laura Silsby and Charisa Coulter, who are both members of the Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho.
"[1][6] The charity claimed to be in the process of acquiring land to build an orphanage as well as a church and school in Magante on the Northern coast of the Dominican Republic.
The mission's plan was to go to Haiti and bring a hundred orphans to Cabarete, Dominican Republic, where NLCR had leased a hotel to serve as a temporary orphanage.
[8][9] Undeterred the group set out to collect orphans from the devastated town of Calebasse (or Callabas) and from the slum of Le Citron in Port-au-Prince.
[10][13] Although the children's relatives were told that they would be able to visit them and eventually take them back, the NLCR's mission statement clearly outlined plans for adoption.
Her trial began on May 13, and prosecutors asked for a 6-month prison sentence, arguing that Silsby was fully aware that she did not have proper authorization to take the children out of the country.
[24][citation needed] Silsby faced civil lawsuits for fraud, wrongful termination and unpaid wages mostly related to Personal Shopper,[21][22][25] an Internet company that she founded in 1999 with James Hammons.
[28] Alertsense has since started another company called Konexus because of bad press when its software was involved in the 2018 Hawaii false missile alert.
[31] Puello later acknowledged that he is under investigation for sex trafficking in El Salvador and wanted in the United States for smuggling people across the Canada–US border.
[34] On August 18, 2010, the Dominican Supreme Court authorized Puello's extradition to the United States where he was sentenced to 37 months of prison in June 2011.