Adoption lawyer smuggled pregnant women into US, then sold their babies, feds say
.jpg "An adoption attorney from Mesa, Arizona was sentenced to more than 6 years in prison after smuggling pregnant women into the US for their babies to be adopted.")
An adoption attorney was sentenced to six years in prison after authorities say he spent several years smuggling pregnant women into the United States so American families could adopt their babies, according to a news release from the Department of Justice said.
Paul Petersen, 45, of Mesa, Arizona, “exploited a legal loophole and used it to run an international adoption business outside the necessary oversight from the [U.S.] or the Republic of the Marshall Islands,” David Fowlkes, first assistant U.S. attorney, said in a statement.
“During the scheme, the defendant lied to state court judges, falsified records, encouraged others to lie during court proceedings, and manipulated birth mothers into consenting to adoptions they did not fully understand,” Fowlkes said.
Petersen, who brought the women to Arkansas, was indicted by a federal grand jury in October/ 2019 and entered a guilty plea for “conspiracy to smuggle illegal aliens for commercial advantage and private financial gain” in June 2020, the news release said.
On Tuesday, Judge Timothy Brooks in the Western District of Arkansas, sentenced Petersen “to 72 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release,” according to the news release. He was also ordered to pay $105,000 in fines and court costs a fine and court costs.
The FBI and the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service investigated Petersen for several years and found he “orchestrated the travel of several pregnant women from [Republic of Marshall Islands] to … Arkansas … to arrange adoption of their children by families living in the [U.S.],” according to the release. Petersen used credit cards to buy airplane tickets for several women to come to the U.S. illegally, the release said.
The families who adopted the children “paid Petersen significant sums of money for him to act as a legal facilitator of the adoptions,” according to the release. Petersen’s “co-conspirators” offered the birth mothers $10,000 to come to the U.S. and give up their babies for adoption, the release said.
“He subverted what should be a joyous time for everyone into a baby-selling enterprise,” Judge Brooks said during a virtual hearing on Nov. 2, according to the Arizona Republic. “The conduct Mr. Petersen engaged in violates public policy. We don’t sell babies. That is the public policy of the United States of America.”
This story was originally published December 2, 2020 at 8:58 PM with the headline "Adoption lawyer smuggled pregnant women into US, then sold their babies, feds say."