Another Oklahoma Adoption Fraud Case
In 2011, we reported on the first Oklahoma scam. The Shelly Renee Henson case is another.
“An Oklahoma City woman was sentenced to 60 months in prison on mail fraud charges related to an adoption scam, according to Sanford C. Coats, United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma.
District Judge Stephen P. Friot also ordered Shelly Renee Henson to serve three years of supervised release upon release from prison and to pay $49,361.47 in restitution to the victims.
According to court filings and information from the plea and sentencing hearings, between July 2008 and June 2011, Henson defrauded at least five adoption agencies and adoption law firms. Henson also defrauded several prospective adoptive parents from throughout the United States, including Florida, Kansas, and Oklahoma, according to prosecutors. Henson would falsely pose as an expectant mother and then approach the adoption agencies and law firms claiming she wanted to place her purported unborn child for adoption, Coats said.
Throughout the course of her scams, Henson requested and received money for living expenses, including rent, utilities, food, and other personal items. When completing the “birth mother” applications, Henson often provided false information regarding her personal identification, the conception of a child, and the identity of the putative birth father.
Henson also provided fraudulent medical documentation such as pregnancy verifications, sonograms, blood work, laboratory results, and other pregnancy-related medical records that she created or altered on her computer, according to court documents. [Wow! How do you falsify a sonogram?]
Henson often initiated contact with the prospective adoptive parents with whom she had been matched by the adoption agencies and law firms. On one occasion, Henson engaged in a lengthy relationship with the prospective adoptive mother, meeting on one occasion, and exchanging approximately 800 text messages over a five-month period, Coats said.
Henson continued to communicate with this prospective adoptive mother up to the day she had falsely claimed she was being induced in Oklahoma City, knowing that this family had traveled from Kansas to Oklahoma City to be present during the delivery. On at least two occasions, Henson requested the prospective adoptive mothers accompany her in the delivery room when she knew that there would not be a delivery.
After her arrest, authorities say Henson admitted that she had previously undergone a tubal ligation procedure several years before committing the adoption fraud.
Henson was charged by indictment on Aug. 21, 2012, with 18 counts of mail fraud, wire fraud, and misuse of a Social Security number.
Henson pled guilty to mail fraud on Jan. 7, 2013.
Woman sentenced to 60 months following adoption scam
[Koco.com 5/6/13]
REFORM Puzzle Pieces
I’ve seen images of sonograms online– I imagine you could download one of those and print it off if need be. Or ask for copies of sonograms from proud expectant friends, and pass them off as yours.
However, the entire problem of “faked” pregnancies could be prevented by offering free prenatal care for all their clients from doctors who provide copies of all pregnancy-related info to the adoption agency. The client would have to sign a release to this effect in order to be eligible for this benefit.
And if free prenatal care was the ONLY benefit offered, the incentive to fake pregnancies for “livings” would be eliminated, too. It’d also eliminate the reward for “shopping” the same pregnancy to multiple agencies. If a woman decided to switch agencies before birth, she’d have to send her managing doctor a written request to share past info with the new agency instead, and bill them from now on. Having duplicate pelvic exams and blood draws isn’t enticing enough for any woman to have multiple PAPs on the string, just because.