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Adoption agency investigated

Boulder-based company closes amid lawsuits, angry


prospective parents

By Heath Urie
Sunday, February 17, 2008

Boulder police are investigating the business practices of a Boulder-


based international adoption agency that closed its doors last week in
the face of mounting complaints and lawsuits, a Camera investigation
revealed.

Police spokeswoman Sarah Huntley confirmed the investigation Friday,


saying detectives have been assigned to look into "alleged felonious
criminal wrongdoing in relation to adoption practices" at the Claar
Foundation, 4141 Arapahoe Ave.

While details about the ongoing probe are not being released, business
and court records -- along with several hopeful adoptive parents --
indicate the company that specialized in finding homes for orphans living
in foreign countries has a troubled past.

In its various incarnations, the Claar Foundation -- started by former


Erie Trustee Lisa Novak and her husband, Martin Claar -- has been sued
several times over its financial dealings.

Grieving would-be parents say they were swindled, but Novak said the
agency's closure has been handled properly.

Novak on Saturday said she was not aware of the ongoing police
investigation, but that she has done nothing wrong.

"We stopped taking clients months before we closed, and then we offered
all clients the ability to transfer to another agency so their adoptions
wouldn't be stopped," Novak said. "I think the closing of a business as
emotional as adoptions causes an extreme emotional reaction.

"It's a scary process, and when something big and scary happens in the
middle of it like that, the worst in people comes out."

Questions of finance

The first public hint of problems within the company came in May 2005,
when Novak's brother Joseph Novak sued the couple in Boulder County
Court, saying they transferred assets among multiple companies "for the
fraudulent purpose of escaping liability" for more than $216,000 of
borrowed money.

The suit also alleged the couple put $8,400 in charges on credit cards
taken out under his name without his knowledge.

The lawsuit was dismissed in November 2005, after a confidential out-of-


court settlement, and Joseph Novak declined to be interviewed for this
story.

Lisa Novak said the suit was settled in her favor, but could not discuss
the terms of the agreement.

In the suit, though, Joseph Novak claimed the couple consistently


founded companies and changed names to avoid paying their debts.

Records at the Colorado Secretary of State's Office show Novak's


operation began as "New Dawn Adoptions," a nonprofit registered in
2003. The registration named Novak and her husband as the only two
board members overseeing the company.

In January 2004, the couple changed the business's name to "Claar


Foundation Inc.," but it wasn't the first time the company's identity
shifted.

Joseph Novak wrote in the lawsuit that he helped Lisa Novak in early
2002 establish "One Light Adoptions," a nonprofit international adoption
agency, as well as "One Light Services," a for-profit adoption services
company.

Lisa Novak also is the registered agent of "Orphan Business Alliance,"


"Global Orphan Support and Education Foundation" and "New Family
Services," state business records show.

New Family Services also had its name changed in September 2003 from
"Rocky Mountain Bands," which operated under the names "Ez Dossier,"
"The Home Study Guide," "New Parent Training" and "Family
Professionals Institute," according to the secretary of state.

All the registered businesses operated from the Arapahoe Avenue


address.

Lisa Novak - who in January 2005 resigned from her position on Erie's
board of trustees after she decided to devote time to helping children
orphaned by the Indian Ocean tsunami - said she resents accusations
that she used her companies to hide assets.

"No assets have ever transferred between any of the companies," Lisa
Novak said, noting that some of the name changes were due to trade-
name issues or "for marketing" reasons.

"Some of them we incorporated, but never used," she said. "We were just
reserving the names."

A deeper toll

Other families who have since targeted the Claar Foundation in court say
the toll has been much deeper than any financial statistics could
indicate.

In November 2007, Denver resident Sheri Eisert - an associate professor


at the University of Colorado's Health Science Center - won a $1,350
judgment against Lisa Novak and the Claar Foundation. A Boulder judge
awarded Eisert the money after she sued for post-adoption home visits
and reports that she said were never completed by the company.

"I was like a hostage," Eisert said, alleging that Claar officials held back
paperwork while at the same time demanding more money. "These are
the nastiest people, who take advantage of people who want to adopt."

She said she finished her adoption through a Maryland-based company,


which delivered a 2-year-old daughter from the Asian nation of
Kazakhstan.

Novak said she paid the settlement, but only because it would have
taken additional assets to hire an attorney to defend against the claims.

More recently, Boulder resident Carol Kuzdek in December 2007 won an


$18,700 judgment against Novak after she filed a lawsuit alleging the
Claar Foundation failed to return fees paid to process an adoption in
Guatemala that never happened.

"I think companies like that need to be accountable for what they do,"
Kuzdek said from her home. "We're not just talking about the financial
aspect, we're talking about the emotional pull on people."

Kuzdek said she stuck with the adoption process with another company,
though, and is expecting the arrival of her 6-month-old daughter from
Guatemala later this month.
"I certainly don't regret doing an adoption," she said. "I just regret having
gone through Claar Foundation."

Additionally, Lafayette residents Susan and Jim Paulson also won a civil
judgment from Claar Foundation. A Boulder County Court judge on Feb.
1 awarded the couple $5,000 for adoption fees the company spent but
refused to refund when Nepal closed its foreign adoption program.

The Paulsons said they decided to adopt a child when they realized their
son, born with severe disabilities, would not live long.

"We thought we'd get a 2-year-old and it would round out our family,"
Susan Paulson said. "We were thrilled about the possibility."

On Feb. 5, the Paulson's 3-year-old son, Quinn, died.

Susan Paulson said she borrowed the money from a relative, and they
can no longer afford to go through another adoption agency because they
spent as much as $13,000 dealing with the Claar Foundation.

"We totally put all our trust in them," Susan Paulson said. "I want
everyone to know - I want to yell it from the mountaintops - that these
people did something ... really violating to our personal sensibilities."

Novak said the Paulson's claims against her company have "no validity."

"They're popping up now that they know we're closed," Novak said about
the Paulsons.

Novak told the Camera that neither the Kuzdek judgment nor the
Paulson judgment would be paid because the Claar Foundation has no
assets. She said she is not personally liable for the court decisions.

© 2006 Daily Camera and Boulder Publishing, LLC

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