Chris Rock is in big trouble. He and his ex-wife Malaak Compton-Rock are reportedly facing “child trafficking” charges after raising a South African girl, Ntombi-futhi Samantha in their New Jersey home for almost seven years without legally adopting Samantha.
The seven-year-old girl reportedly had been part of Rock's family since November 2008 when she was only 6 months old.
Chris and Malaak Compton-Rock brought her from South Africa to live in their home in Alpine, New Jersey, one of America's most affluent areas, with their two biological daughters, 12-year-old Lola and 10-year-old Zahra.
Chris Rock and his philanthropist wife split last year, and the children's status has now become part of their divorce.
Rocks appears to have had no contact with his wife since the separation from Malaak last year, despite Chris wanting to spend time with their other two children.
Compton-Rock is now in the process of legally adopting the child in the United States. It has been reported, however, that the girl entered the U.S. on a leisure travel visa, not as a prospective adoptee.
TMZ has now claimed to have discovered that the child was only in the country on a temporary B2 "visitor for pleasure" visa, which only allows a visitor to stay in the US for up to one year, though his estranged wife has since insisted she is in the country legally.
After the 12 month period and their visa expiring, they must return to their own country to fill out the paperwork before returning again.
Malaak’s lawyer David Aronson of Aronson, Mayefsky & Sloan told People that she is in the process of adopting the little girl, and she admit also that intercountry adoption is a long process.
In 2010 Rock beat up speculation that the little girl was a secret love child after he was photographed leaving New York City's Trump International Hotel with her.
His spokesman at that point told People magazine at the time that she was "the daughter of a family friend from South Africa who Compton-Rock met through her charity endeavors."
