A Russian-born woman was indicted in Wichita Wednesday on charges of international parental kidnapping, U.S. Attorney Tom Beall said.
Bogdana Alexandrovna Mobley, 37, is charged with one count of international parental kidnapping. Mobley was arrested Sept. 29 in Wichita after spending more than three years in Russia. Investigators believe her children are still in Russia.
According to court records, Mobley emigrated from Russia to the United States in 2003 and later became a naturalized U.S. citizen.
In March 2014, her second husband filed for divorce in Sedgwick County District Court.
While the case was pending and Mobley was pregnant with her third child, she fled to Russia with her two children – one born in 2004 when she was married for the first time and the other born in 2013 while she was married to her second husband. Her third child was born about two months after she returned to Russia.
In December 2014, a Sedgwick County judge granted full custody of the two younger children to Mobley’s ex-husband and ordered her to return them to him.
While she was in Russia with the children, she allowed her ex-husband to communicate with his children only by cell phone or Skype. In January 2015, he flew to meet her on the border of Poland and Russia but she did not allow him to see the children and she told him to give her money if he wanted to talk to them.
If convicted, she faces up to three years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000 on the kidnapping charge. The FBI investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Hart is prosecuting.