Former Republican Maricopa County, Arizona assessor and adoption lawyer Paul Petersen was sentenced Tuesday in Arkansas to six years in prison and ordered to pay $105,100 in fines for running an illegal adoption scheme.
Petersen ran a multi-state adoption fraud scheme through which he arranged at least 70 illegal adoptions throughout Arkansas, Arizona and Utah, according to The New York Times (NYT). Petersen was accused of helping pregnant women come from the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) to the U.S. to give birth and then would adopt those babies out to American couples, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
“He subverted what should be a joyous time for everyone into a baby-selling enterprise,” U.S. District Judge Timothy L. Brooks said during Petersen’s hearing Tuesday, according to USA Today. “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.”
Petersen was accused of taking the mothers passports from them to keep them in the U.S. and then threatened them with arrest if they tried to back out of the adoption, according AZ Family. The women, who were reportedly poor and didn’t speak much English, were essentially prevented from escaping, prosecutors alleged, according to the report.
NEW: ‘A baby-selling enterprise’: Federal judge sentences Paul Petersen to 6-plus years in adoption scheme https://t.co/utvMHIdNU9 via @azcentral
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“These circumstances prevented their escape as securely as if they were chained to a wall,” prosecutors said while referring to four birth mothers who expressed doubts about their adoptions but followed through because they couldn’t return home, according to the report.
Under the 1983 Compact of Free Association with the RMI, RMI citizens can freely enter the U.S. for employment opportunities. However, the compact also prohibits RMI citizens from entering the U.S. if their travel is for the purpose of adoption, according to the DOJ.
The DOJ alleged that Petersen violated the compact by using credit cards to buy plane tickets to bring the women over to the U.S. despite the women not having the authorization to enter the U.S. under the compact.
“The defendant in this case violated the laws of three states and two countries during the course of his criminal scheme,” First Assistant United States Attorney David Clay Fowlkes said in a statement. “He exploited a legal loophole and used it to run an International adoption business outside the necessary oversight from the U.S. or the Republican of the Marshall Islands.”
“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 continued. (RELATED: Former Mexican Defense Minister Arrested At US Airport On Suspicion Of Drug-Related Corruption)
Petersen was also accused of Medicare fraud by which he was alleged to have falsified residency information for the pregnant women so that he could enroll them in Medicare, according to the NYT.
Petersen pled guilty in June to a federal human smuggling charge, according to CNN.
Petersen has 14 days to appeal his sentence. He awaits sentencing on state charges in Arizona and Utah where he also pleaded guilty to human smuggling and fraud, according to the NYT.