Indianapolis Woman Pleads Guilty to Adoption scheme UPDATED

We covered this one in a  February 2014 FacePalm .Check out #8.

“An Indianapolis woman who was charged after she collected $5,000 in an alleged adoption scam has agreed to plead guilty to felony charges of forgery and obstruction of justice.

Michelle Greenberg, 44, recently accepted a deal with prosecutors to plead to the two charges in exchange for the state dismissing two other felony forgery charges. The state also agreed not to file a theft charge against her.

Greenberg was charged in January when prosecutors accused her of forging documents in what they called “an effort to take financial advantage” of at least one Indianapolis couple. Investigators said at the time that they suspected there might be other victims.

“Ms. Greenberg is accused of preying on a couple who wished for an opportunity to start a family through adoption,” Prosecutor Terry Curry said in a statement in January.

In court documents, Greenberg is described as a birth-mother liaison. In that role, she connected pregnant women who did not want to keep a child with a local attorney who helped couples seeking to adopt.

Greenberg received $2,500 for every pregnant woman she signed up to work with the attorney, according to court records, and another $2,500 when the adoption was finalized.

But in at least one case, a couple paid the attorney $13,000 — including $5,000 that went to Greenberg — but never got to adopt the newborn they had been promised.

An investigation by Indiana State Police revealed that the woman Greenberg claimed was willing to give up her baby for adoption had never agreed to the arrangement. The woman said she knew nothing about the adoption plan until nearly two years after she gave birth. That is when, court documents say, an associate of Greenberg’s offered the woman $2,000 to show the couple her baby and tell them she had changed her mind about the adoption.

No charges have been filed against the attorney involved in the adoption.

The initial felony charges against Greenberg allege that she forged at least three documents related to the adoption.

The plea agreement calls for Greenberg to be sentenced to three years, with a cap of two years on the forgery charge and a cap of one year on the obstruction charge.

The sentences will be served concurrently, with placement determined by the court.

Greenberg has repaid $5,000 to the couple from whom she collected her fee.

Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 19 in Marion Superior Court.”

Indianapolis woman pleads guilty in adoption scheme[Indianapolis Star 8/6/14 by Tim Evans]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

 

Update:“A judge has sentenced a woman to 2 years of home detention for what prosecutors called an adoption scam.

According to a probable cause affidavit, Greenberg connected a couple with an expectant mother. But it turned out there wasn’t one.

43-year-old Michelle Greenberg pleaded guilty to forgery and obstruction of justice in connection with the failed adoption.

Authorities say the adoptive parents paid $13,000 in 2011 for an adoption that never occurred.

The judge also ordered Greenberg have no contact with the victims in the case and she is not allowed to have a job related to children in the future.”

Woman sentenced in adoption fraud case[Wish TV 9/26/14]