Chicago Child Smuggler faces Fraud Charges

A Bolingbrook woman who adopted three state wards and then shipped them to Africa is charged with bilking two state agencies for child care funds and adoption subsidies worth more than $70,000, according to a new federal indictment issued Thursday.
Esi Antobam was also hit with four new allegations of smuggling or harboring illegal aliens, including three children found in her Bolingbrook home, U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said. Antobam, 55, has been in custody since October, when she was charged with one count of alien smuggling after a raid on her home.
Antobam's case exploded last month after Chicago Sun-Times columnist Michael Sneed discovered that the woman has been collecting state funds to care for three children she adopted, although the children had been sent to Ghana several months earlier.
At first, officials from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services distanced themselves from the case, but they later took custody of the children and brought them back to Illinois.
The new, 14-count indictment against Antobam accuses her of mail fraud, misuse of a passport, identification document fraud, lying to federal immigration officials and smuggling or attempted smuggling.