Sean Goldman

Sean Goldman is a young American boy in the middle of a Child abduction case. Sean Goldman's father is David Goldman of Tinton Falls, New Jersey, and his mother is the late Bruna Goldman, a Brazilian. The couple was married in Eatonville, New Jersey in 1999. In June 2004, Bruna took Sean to Brazil, according to her, for a family vacation to see her family. However, once in Brazil, she phoned David informing him that she was not coming back, and Sean would stay there. ,
She was, in essence, kidnapping the child, which is against the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. Both the U.S. and Brazil are in accord with the Convention which provides for an expeditious method to return a child taken from one member nation to another.

Within 10 months time, Bruna divorced David in a Brazilian court, and was remarried to a Brazilian attorney, João Paulo Lins e Silva, a son of a family lawyer in Rio de Janeiro. In August 2008, with the case pending in Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (Supremo Tribunal Federal), Bruna died during the birth of the couple's daughter.
Since her death, Mr. Lins e Silva has cared for Sean and refused to allow him to return to his biological father, David Goldman.
In the ensuing four years that the legal case has dragged on, David Goldman has traveled to Brazil many times and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal and travel costs in an attempt to reunite with his own son who is now eight years old and return him to the US.
Latest Developments
In a Brazilian-court authorized meeting in Brazil in February 2009, Goldman was permitted to meet with his son for six hours spread out over two days for the first time in four years.
In March 2009, Goldman appeared on CNN-TV’s Larry King news program, that is aired internationally, and also appearing were Helvecio Ribeiro, Bruna’s uncle who lives in Seattle and opposes the child's return to his father, and Rep. , who has traveled to Brazil with Goldman to work toward the return of Sean to the U.S.
Helvecio Ribeiro questioned the “morals’ of Mr. Goldman and said that Goldman should have paid child support to Bruna, the kidnapper, to support the child over the past four years. Goldman, Rep. Smith and Goldman’s lawyer said that position was ludicrous.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has spoken about her strong support for David and Sean Goldman, and said she is working so that Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will abide by international law and assist in the return of Sean Goldman to his father. ],
Rep Chris Smith is helping to lead an effort by the US House and Senate to pass resolutions calling for the return of Sean Goldman to his home.

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