An upcoming documentary spotlighting the potentially unethical practices used in Cambodian adoptions will explore again whether Angelina Jolie's son Maddox 'may have been stolen from his birth family'.
Jolie, 46, adopted Maddox from Cambodia in 2002 with the help of adoption agent Lauryn Galindo, who was jailed in 2004 for 'falsifying documents to obtain US visas for orphans'.
21-year-old Filmmaker Elizabeth Jacobs - whose parents also used Galindo to facilitate their child's adoption from Cambodia - will revisit the claim that 'poor Cambodian families are preyed on by baby recruiters' in her forthcoming documentary, The Stolen Children.
Documentary: An upcoming documentary spotlighting the potentially unethical practices used in Cambodian adoptions will explore whether Angelina Jolie's son Maddox 'may have been stolen from birth family' (Jolie pictured with daughter Zahara and son Maddox in 2020)
The Sun has revealed that Jacobs, who is a film and marketing student at the University of Massachusetts, is determined to uncover the truth about Galindo's adoptions.
The paper further reports that between 1997 and 2001 half of adoptions from Cambodia to the US - approximately 800 out of 1600 - went through Galindo.
At the time, Galindo and her sister Lynn Devin ran an adoption agency called Seattle International Adoptions, and shortly after Jolie adopted her son Maddox, Galindo and Devin faced criminal charges.
Devin faced a $150,000 fine while Galindo was jailed for falsifying names, birth dates and places of birth of Cambodian children she helped to place with US families two years after Jolie and her then-husband Billy Bob Thornton took full custody of Maddox.
Adoption: Jolie, 46, adopted Maddox from Cambodia in 2002 with the help of adoption agent Lauryn Galindo, who was jailed in 2004 for 'falsifying documents to obtain US visas for orphans' (pictured 2003)
When the scandal was exposed, the U.S. government and several other countries shut down adoptions from Cambodia, with Jolie saying she knew nothing of the illegal trade. There is no evidence Maddox was not an orphan.
Jolie insisted at the time that she went to 'great lengths to ensure Maddox did not have a living birth-mother in Cambodia' and that she would 'never rob a mother of her child.'
Galindo told The Sun in a recent statement that she would be happy to answer any questions Jacob may have, but insisted the young filmmaker has not reached out to her yet.
She denied that any of her practices had ever been illegal, hailing herself as 'a champion of children'.
Galindo added she has 'no reason to believe' that Maddox's adoption was unethical and seemingly
