Marshall Islands Adoption Scheme and Lawsuit UPDATED
“A baby boy born in Arkansas on Thursday might be the first child involved in an adoption scheme after attorney [and Maricopa County Assessor] Paul Petersen’s arrest.
The birth mother from the Marshall Islands also went through Petersen’s firm in two earlier adoptions, said Josh Bryant, an attorney in Arkansas.
Thursday night was the first time after giving birth that she was permitted to keep the child in the room with her.
“Prior adoptions that she’s done through Mr. Petersen, the people working with him required that the baby leave the room,” Bryant said. “This is the first time where she understood she had the right to keep the child in the room.”
But the fate of the planned adoption is unknown as authorities sort through a legal mess.
A judge in Washington County, Arkansas, will take control of 13 pending adoption cases initially arranged by Petersen.
Petersen was arrested on Tuesday after indictments in three states were linked to claims of adoption fraud.
Bryant will represent the adoptive families in court, while attorney Andrea McCurdy will represent the biological mothers.
The anonymous families, through Bryant, filed an injunction Thursday against Petersen and Megan Wolfe, a woman who helped facilitate adoptions through Petersen’s firm. Washington County Circuit Court Judge Doug Martin will now hear every Petersen adoption case in Arkansas.
The families reached out to Petersen’s law firm in the past nine months and paid him thousands of dollars to begin the adoption process, according to the complaint filed by Bryant.
Petersen is accused of breaking a compact between the United States and the Marshall Islands, which forbids Marshallese women from traveling to the U.S. for adoption. The provision was enacted in 2003 to prevent mounting exploitation of women from the Marshall Islands, but recent reporting from Honolulu Civil Beat revealed the practice is still common, naming Petersen as a repeat offender.
The families involved are from Arizona, Utah, Montana, Michigan, Idaho, North Carolina and Alabama, Bryant said. They were matched with birth mothers, with plans to adopt children through Petersen in the coming days and months.
The complaint filed in court also named Megan Wolfe as a defendant in the case.
According to the emergency petition filed on behalf of the families on Thursday, Petersen’s paralegal Wolfe told the 13 families who are currently in the adoption process that their adoptions will “continue as per usual” despite Petersen’s arrest.
“It is very much not business as usual. This is a very scary time for a lot of parents,” Justin Heimer, an adoption attorney also working on the case, said at a news conference Thursday. “The adoptions that were going on through Mr. Petersen’s office are all in jeopardy.”
Bryant said the parents he represents want Wolfe to stop working on their cases.
By Thursday evening, the attorney was aware of six additional mothers in Arkansas who were planning adoptions through Petersen.
Shared Beginnings, a nonprofit in Arkansas, is working with the mothers. Bryant said the goal is to move forward with the adoptions, if the adoptive parents and biological mothers still want to, as ethically as possible.
More than a dozen biological mothers in Arkansas and adoptive families are stuck in limbo as authorities consider how to handle adoptions that were pending through Petersen’s firm.
At a Friday court hearing, Bryant said a social worker from Shared Beginnings testified that when she started visiting with some of the mothers, they immediately began to cry and asked, “Am I in trouble?”
Social workers are trying to reassure the women that they have a voice in the adoption process going forward.
Michaela Montie, executive director at Shared Beginnings, said they are working with the mothers, through translators, to discover how long they have been in the U.S. and whether they want to proceed with their adoption plan.
“In some of these cases in Arkansas, the residency requirement for adoption is four months,” she said. “We are running into women who have been flown here two weeks ago.”
One biological mother said she was told her return flight to the Marshall Islands would be covered, Montie said. That woman is a single mother who has children in the Marshall Islands who are waiting for their mother to return.
Now, the very adoption that brought her 6,000 miles away from her children is clouded by uncertainty — and she does not have a plane ticket home. ”
Newborn in Arkansas may be 1st caught up in adoption fallout after Paul Petersen’s arrest
[Arizona Central 10/11/19 by Lily Altavena]
“The names of some of the largest GOP critics of President Donald Trump are surfacing in the investigation of a politician indicted this week on charges of fraud, human smuggling, selling children, forgery, conspiracy and ripping off the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System.
Maricopa County Assessor Paul Petersen has been indicted in Arizona, Utah and Arkansas on state and federal charges that he is running an illegal adoption ring.
In all, he’s facing 62 criminal charges involving dozens of pregnant woman brought in from the Marshall Islands to supply babies to Petersen’s clients and millions to his bank account.
“Make no mistake, this case is the purest form of human trafficking,” the U.S. Attorney for western Arkansas, Duane “Dak” Kees, said Wednesday at a press conference in Springdale Ark. where he announced the federal indictments.
But what IS NOT public, until now, is Petersen’s curious association with GOP critics of President Trump, including former US Sen. Jeff Flake, late Sen. John McCain, and Sen. Mitt Romney among others. Petersen also campaigned for and is friends with Arizona Gov. Goug Ducey and other politicians, according to records and sources.
Petersen’s association with Flake, who recently resigned from the Senate, is perhaps most curious. Petersen’s alleged schemes involved securing pregnant women from the Marshall Islands. Flake is somewhat famous for his much-hyped personal trips to the Marshall Islands. Flake has trekked to the Marshall Islands at least four times, including once to film a reality survival show while he was in the Senate.
Petersen’s reference in 2013 to being invited on a Marshall Island trip WITH Flake is something that promises to peak the interest of state and federal investigators.
“Any investigator worth their salt would want to know what else Jeff Flake was doing on these trips to the Marshall Islands,” said Thomas Paine of True Pundit who worked for many federal agencies investigating fraud and corruption. “I would want to interview Flake just to get a feel for his relationship with Petersen and information on these trips.
“Is this merely a strange coincidence? You rule out coincidences as part of a proper investigation but the emphasis here is in on the word proper.”
Petersen has bragged that his Mesa-based family has roots in Arizona for generations. Flake too hails from Mesa.
Federal law enforcement sources said they do not believe Flake has been interviewed about Petersen. However, additional photos that have surfaced showing Petersen with politicians like Flake and the late John McCain should likewise intrigue ethical investigators.
What was Petersen’s relationship with McCain? Petersen is mentioned in a news piece detailing McCain using his influence to secure $15 million in federal funds linked to a land purchase in Maricopa County to benefit a large political mega donor who piped almost $225,000 into McCain’s coffers.
Are there more questionable land deals to be probed?
The indictment against Petersen, for the most part, said he began bringing pregnant women into the United States from the Marshall Islands in 2014. Petersen and his solo-practitioning law firm charged as much as $40,000 per adoption, placing the newborns with American parents — in many cases — against the will of their foreign birth mothers. At the same time Petersen was rubbing elbows with high profile politicians as an elected official himself and drawing a public salary.
Petersen has contributed to the political campaigns of former U.S. Sen. Dean Heller from Nevada as well as made multiple contributions to Mitt Romney, federal records show. Petersen also campaigned for Romney’s presidential bid. All told, Petersen made five political contributions to Romney, FEC records show for approximately $1,500.
Today, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey called for Peterson to step down and resign as Maricopa County Assessor. Ducey made no mention of Petersen’s work on Ducey’s campaign, however. Or Ducey’s shout outs to Petersen on social media.
Petersen, who was arrested Tuesday afternoon in Gila Bend, issued a statement saying he has done nothing wrong and is “extremely proud” of his work “to help mothers and fathers and create new families.”
Petersen, who works as an adoption lawyer in all three states, is charged with 32 counts in Arizona, 11 counts in Utah and 19 federal charges in Arkansas.
According to authorities, Petersen and his Marshallese partner/translator, Lynwood Jennet, recruited pregnant women in the Marshall Islands and paid for them to come to Arizona, Utah and Arkansas where they would live in houses or apartments provided by Petersen.
The women in Petersen’s Arizona operation then would be directed to sign up for the state’s Medicaid program, falsely claiming they were state residents in order have their pregnancy and birth costs covered by taxpayers, the indictment claims.
Once born, the babies would be put up for adoption, earning Petersen a hefty commission and the birth mothers an all-expenses-paid trip either to Arkansas or back home to the Marshall Islands.
Marshallese women who want to adopt out their children cannot come to the U.S. without a special visa, according to a treaty provision enacted in 2003. This, to avoid exploitation of vulnerable women in the impoverished nation.
Per reporting: Before his election, Petersen served nearly eight years in the Assessor’s Office working as the assessor’s representative at the Arizona Legislature and as the agency’s public information officer, according to his biography on the county assessor’s website.
Petersen is an active member of the Maricopa County Republican Party, the Arizona Republican Party, and a precinct committeeman in Legislative District 25, according to the bio.”
Top ‘Never-Trumpers’ Tied to Politician Indicted for Human Smuggling and Selling Children
[True Pundit 10/12/19]
REFORM Puzzle Piece
Update: “Maricopa County Assessor Paul Petersen, who’s facing possible prison time for an adoption scheme involving pregnant Marshallese women, helped facilitate at least one planned placement of a Native American baby, according to documents obtained by Phoenix New Times.
Emails to the adoptive family from the director of Bright Star Adoptions, an adoption firm for which Petersen served as general counsel, suggest that concerns came up about the firm’s compliance with the Indian Child Welfare Act following Petersen’s arrest.
The director, Linda Henning Gansler, wrote to the adoptive parents on October 12 that she retained a new lawyer in place of Petersen and assured them that the birth mother was still willing to move forward with the adoption.
She also wrote: “I do have to notify the tribe as that is proper procedure, [sic] we were given incorrect advice from Paul. this [sic] will happen this week.”
The Indian Child Welfare Act is a federal law enacted in 1978 to prevent removals of Native children from tribal communities and to protect the due process rights of American Indian parents. The law stems from an ugly period in recent American history wherein government officials forcibly removed Native American children from reservations to assimilate them into white culture.
Upon reviewing language from the Bright Star Adoption contract obtained exclusively by New Times, multiple experts in Indian law told New Times the firm appears to have given bad legal advice. The contract states that the Indian Child Welfare Act did “not apply” in the adoption case, which is a false assertion, according to attorneys who spoke with New Times. Kathryn Fort, a professor of Indian law at Michigan State University, said the married couple looking to adopt a Native baby were “being taken advantage of” by Petersen’s firm.
And the Colorado River Indian Tribes, the Native community affiliated with the birth mother in the Bright Star Adoptions case, released a statement to New Times expressing concern that the firm “may have failed to properly inform prospective adoptive parents about the application of [the Indian Child Welfare Act] or abide by the notice requirements.”
Potential noncompliance with the Indian Child Welfare Act could open a new chapter in the sprawling, multistate investigation into Petersen’s alleged adoption practices. Petersen is likely to face additional scrutiny from law enforcement and tribes. In addition, his firm’s apparent negligence in complying with the Indian Child Welfare Act could jeopardize at least one planned adoption.
It’s unknown if Petersen’s firm has been involved in other Native child placement cases.
Petersen’s law office was raided earlier this month by state police in conjunction with his arrest. The adoption firm involved with the Native baby placement, Bright Star Adoptions, for which Petersen served as general counsel and majority owner, was not part of the police action.
Petersen faces charges in Arizona, Arkansas, and Utah, ranging from Medicaid fraud to human smuggling. Law enforcement officials allege that Petersen facilitated travel for around 70 women from the Marshall Islands in a manner that violated an international treaty. If convicted of his most serious alleged offenses, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.
Native American children are not currently in the scope of the Arizona Attorney General’s case against Petersen, spokesperson Ryan Anderson said.
The county assessor, first appointed in 2013 and elected to a four-year term in 2016, so far has resisted bipartisan calls for him to resign from public office.
The Contract
Petersen was “95 percent owner” and served as general counsel of Bright Star Adoptions, wrote Gansler, his business partner, in the October 12 email correspondence obtained by New Times. Gansler did not respond to an email or voicemail seeking comment.
Joel Sannes, an attorney representing Gansler, confirmed to New Times in an email that Petersen served as general counsel for Bright Star Adoptions. But Sannes said no operating agreement determines the ownership stake of Gansler and Petersen.
“It would be speculating to say what percentage interest Mr. Petersen believes Ms. Gansler has in Bright Star,” Sannes wrote. “For her part, Ms. Gansler did not consider her membership interest to be a factor in her work at Bright Star. She was only paid as an employee during the period of a little more than a year since Bright Star has been operating.”
The contract New Times obtained was sent from Bright Star Adoptions to the married couple looking to adopt a baby from a pregnant woman who appears to be enrolled as a member, or is eligible for membership, in the Colorado River Indian Tribes reservation, which spans parts of western Arizona and eastern California along the Colorado River.
The woman’s baby is due in December, records show.
Bright Star’s contract calls for the married couple to pay the firm $36,000 to facilitate their adoption. More than $10,000 of that cost would go toward paying for the birth mother’s living expenses, about $22,000 would go toward the firm, and $3,500 would cover a legal fee to terminate the parental rights of the birth mother and father, according to an expense report Bright Star sent to the adoptive parents along with the contract.
The contract, which is riddled with typos and grammatical errors, also states that the birth mother has “Native American ACCESS Medicaid,” possibly referring to the state’s Medicaid program for Natives, the AHCCCS American Indian Health Program.
According to the September “agreement for adoption placement,” Bright Star took the position that the birth mother “does not need to inform the tribe [of the planned adoption] because this is a voluntary placement.”
The contract also stated that the Indian Child Welfare Act “does not apply in this adoption.”
A copy of Bright Star’s contract follows. New Times redacted the names of the birth mother and adoptive parents to protect their privacy.
Neither the birth mother nor the adoptive parents could be reached for comment.
Bright Star’s contract raised concerns for attorneys specializing in the Indian Child Welfare Act, which outlines preferences for Native children to be placed within tribal communities.
Indian Child Welfare Act experts agreed that the Bright Star contract potentially misled the adoptive parents by saying the law “does not apply” in their situation.
“That is just wrong,” said Professor Fort, who also serves as director of the Indian Law Clinic at Michigan State University and authored a case law book titled American Indian Children and the Law.
She pointed to a section in the Indian Child Welfare Act that states the law does apply in adoptions of Native children. And she invoked a federal regulation published in 2016, which states that the Indian Child Welfare Act applies in any “voluntary proceeding that could prohibit the parent or Indian custodian from regaining custody of the child upon demand.”
In other words, the Indian Child Welfare Act applies in voluntary adoption cases when a Native birth mother gives up her parental rights. It’s unclear from the September Bright Star contract whether the birth mother agreed to give up her parental rights after the birth of her child.
But an email from Bright Star to the adoptive parents after Petersen’s arrest states that the agency found a new attorney to handle the birth mother’s “relinquishment,” a term for giving up parental rights.
Fort also took exception to the claim in the contract that the birth mother “does not need to inform the tribe because this is a voluntary placement.”
She said the Indian Child Welfare Act implicitly requires tribal notification in voluntary adoption cases because only a tribe can say whether a child would be eligible for membership, thereby allowing a court to determine whether the law applies.
Through her attorney, Gansler declined to comment on the planned adoption involving the Colorado River Indian Tribes.
“Because this question would require information regarding clients, it would be inappropriate to comment,” said Sannes, the attorney representing Gansler, adding that Gansler cannot comment to protect the privacy of her clients.
He continued: “Ms. Gansler can state that if she believed an adoption required approval from a sovereign native nation, she would not have told a client that approval was not required, nor would she have had a client sign a contract that would say that approval is not necessary. Gansler is not an attorney, and in matters where there is a question whether the [Indian Child Welfare Act] may be applicable, she relies on legal advice from attorneys who practice adoption law. Mr. Petersen, in addition to being a member of Bright Star, was also Bright Star’s general legal counsel.”
David Simmons, the director of government affairs and advocacy at the National Indian Child Welfare Association, agreed with Fort that the law implicitly requires tribal notification in cases of voluntary adoption.
“How do you get to determine whether a child is an Indian child? The adoption attorney is not in a good position to make a good determination,” Simmons said. “You should be contacting the tribe and ask if the child is a member.”
Even an adoption attorney who, in an ongoing constitutional debate over the Indian Child Welfare Act, leans on the side of a birth parent’s right to decide their child’s placement, said he had concerns about Bright Star’s contract language.
Jay McCarthy, a Flagstaff-based adoption attorney, said the contract’s blanket statement that the law “does not apply” should have included context that backed up the claim.
“It’s a red flag that the contract provided insufficient information to make such a statement. It should have said the child has Native American ancestry and a discussion of the Indian Child Welfare Act should occur to determine whether it is applicable,” McCarthy said.
But McCarthy disagrees with Fort and Simmons on whether Bright Star Adoptions or the birth mother had a legal obligation under the Indian Child Welfare Act to notify the tribe about the planned adoption.
McCarthy said notifying the tribe of an adoption could violate the birth parent’s privacy rights, and in such cases, the rights of a parent to decide the placement of their child supersedes the rights of tribes to intervene. In a phone interview, McCarthy expressed concern for the birth mother.
“This woman, I’m really scared for her, because she’s getting possibly incorrect advice,” he said. “This poor woman needs to see a lawyer who knows this area of the law.”
On top of giving potentially misleading information on the Indian Child Welfare Act, the contract includes language to legally and financially protect Bright Star Adoptions if the adoption does not go through.
A clause in the contract states that Bright Star “shall not be liable at law or in equity nor shall they bring, encourage, to be brought, or instigate any legal action in the event that said child is not ready or not available for adoption.”
The contract further states that “should the birth mother changed [sic] her mind and ask for the child back or discontinue adoption services prior to birth the adoptive couple loose [sic] the following fees. Legal expenses earned by attorneys, case work and counseling, living expenses and a $5,000.00 at risk agency fee.”
Fort said such language could become relevant if the tribe decides to contest the adoption, which could lead to a protracted legal battle.
“Frankly, the adoptive parents are being taken advantage of here. They put all this money up. They’re told by their attorney there shouldn’t be any hiccups and they’re being told Indian Child Welfare Act won’t apply,” the professor said. “They’re being lied to.”
The Colorado River Indian Tribes indicated in a statement that tribal officials have been made aware of Bright Star’s planned adoption of a child who is potentially eligible for membership in the tribe. The statement also expressed concerns that the adoptive parents may not have been sufficiently advised on the Indian Child Welfare Act.
“This matter falls under the Indian Child Welfare Act,” the statement reads. “We are concerned that private adoption agencies may have failed to properly inform prospective adoptive parents about the application of this act or abide by the notice requirements. The [Colorado River Indian Tribes] take an active role in the application of the Indian Child Welfare Act and in all matters in which the Indian Child Welfare Act applies, including this most recent situation.”
Established in 1865, the Colorado River Indian Tribes reservation contains members from four distinct tribes: the Mohave, Chemehuevi, Hopi, and Navajo. There are more than 4,000 actively enrolled members, according to the tribe’s website.
In 2017, the tribal council of the Colorado River Indian Tribes passed a resolution establishing an order of placement preferences for adoptions that offer more specificity than those outlined in the Indian Child Welfare Act. The resolution set a preference for children to be placed with the birth parents, followed by grandparents, extended family, other members of the Colorado River Indian Tribes, and finally, other Indian families.
In passing the resolution, the tribal council invoked a passage in the Indian Child Welfare Act that states “that there is no resource that is more vital to the continued existence and integrity of Indian tribes than their children and that the United States has a direct interest, as trustee, in protecting Indian children who are members of or are eligible for membership in an Indian tribe.”
The accusations against Petersen largely followed findings by Honolulu Civil Beat, a nonprofit Hawaiian news organization, in a blockbuster investigation published in late 2018.
The Beat’s findings sparked a months-long, multistate investigation, which culminated in an October 7 state grand jury indictment against Petersen on 32 felony counts related to his Marshall Islands adoption scheme.
Petersen and an accomplice, Lynwood Jennet, stand accused of illegally flying 29 Marshallese women to the United States for the express purpose of giving birth. Each woman got paid up to $10,000 to travel to the country, where they lived in houses owned by Petersen for months as they awaited giving birth.
State authorities also accused Petersen of falsely representing the women as Arizona residents to bilk $800,000 from Arizona taxpayers to pay for the women’s health care costs.
“What Petersen is doing is frankly an affront to Arizona taxpayers,” Brnovich said during a press conference announcing the charges earlier this month. “It’s unfair to the adoptive parents and it’s also unfair to the hardworking Arizona taxpayer.”
State troopers found eight pregnant women when they raided a Mesa home owned by Petersen.
Authorities in Utah and Arkansas filed more serious charges against Petersen.
The United States Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas charged the assessor on multiple federal counts of human smuggling and wire fraud, while Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes is pursuing charges of human smuggling, communications fraud, and sale of a child.
“The commercialism of children is illegal,” Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes said at his own news conference on October 9 announcing the charges. “And the commoditization of children is simply evil.”
Through an attorney, Petersen has denied wrongdoing related to his adoption practice.
“This was not human trafficking,” attorney Matthew Long told the Salt Lake Tribune. “That’s going to be borne out by evidence. That’s going to be borne out by the manner in which it will be demonstrated that Mr. Petersen dealt with the birth mothers and the adopted families.”
Long recently stepped down as Petersen’s attorney. Petersen’s new attorney, Kurt Altman, did not respond to request for comment.
Hilda Heine, the president of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, has applauded the arrest and criminal charges against Petersen, saying: “Marshallese women have been induced by people like Petersen and his ilk for too long.””
Records Show Petersen’s Firm Planned Native Adoption, Raising Legal Questions
[Phoenix New Times 10/21/19 by Steven Hsieh]
Update 2:“People here in the Valley are working to help the mothers and families caught up in Maricopa County Assessor Paul Petersen’s alleged adoption scandal.
Pastors Barmon Langbata and Greg Pratt along with the Life Church at South Mountain in Phoenix are stepping in to help the victims in this case.
Langbata says the tight-knit church is shocked by the whole situation, surrounding Petersen and the alleged baby-trafficking business.“They don’t know if they’re going to go home, or go somewhere else or what’s going to happen to them.”
“Everybody’s very sad as far as Marshallese community right now here in Phoenix. We’re trying to get together and do something for them,” he told 12 News.
Langbata had a chance to speak with the mothers recently and says they’re doing pretty good, considering the circumstances.
“They’re in a situation that they’re kind of scared and we want to reach out to the community and see if they can maybe help them in a way that will make them feel comfortable,” he said.
Langbata added that despite being scared, the women are in good spirits.
“They’re doing pretty much good but they’re kind of scared, don’t know where to go or what’s going to be happening to them,” he said.
Langbata, who has been with the church for roughly four years, says anything will help the Marshallese women.
“We’ve been there with them asking if they need like clothing or food and all these type things they need,” he added.
The small congregation has already collected clothing and food but more is appreciated while the women wait to find out what’s next.
Meantime, Petersen is facing state and federal charges for his alleged involvement in a baby-trafficking business. He’s now facing 62 charges in three states.
He still hasn’t resigned from his $77,000-a-year job as Maricopa County assessor, despite calls from fellow Republicans like Gov. Doug Ducey to step down. He is up for election next year.”
Church helping moms involved in Maricopa County assessor’s alleged adoption scheme
[KVOA 10/21/19]
Update 3: “An elected official in Arizona was suspended Monday after he was charged with running a human smuggling scheme that brought pregnant women from the Marshall Islands to the U.S. to give birth and then paid them to give up their children for adoption.
Leaders in Arizona’s most populous county suspended Assessor Paul Petersen without pay for 120 days.
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors doesn’t have the power to permanently remove him from his office, which determines the value of properties for tax purposes in Phoenix and its suburbs.
The board must now appoint someone in Petersen’s absence.
Petersen, who is in federal custody, has so far refused to resign since his arrest on October 8. His lawyer, Kurt Altman, said Petersen will fight to keep the $77,000-a-year job he was last elected to in 2016.
Petersen, a Republican, has been indicted in federal court in Arkansas and also charged in Arizona and Utah with crimes that include human smuggling, sale of a child, fraud, forgery and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The criminal case spans three years and involves some 75 adoptions, authorities said, with about 30 adoptions pending in three states.
Petersen is accused of illegally paying women from the Marshall Islands to have their babies in the United States and give them up for adoption.
There are currently eight pregnant Marshallese women staying at a Mesa apartment according to Fox 10.
Prosecutors say Petersen was to pay them each $10,000 to put their newborns up for adoption.
‘The commoditization of children is simply evil,’ said Utah Attorney General Sean D. Reyes.
The adoptive parents are considered victims along with the birth mothers, and no completed adoptions will be undone, authorities said.
Petersen’s attorney, Matthew Long, defended his client’s actions during an earlier October court hearing in Phoenix as ‘proper business practices’ and said they disagreed with the allegations.
It was reported in 2018 how Petersen was said to have paid for more than 40 pregnant Marshallese women to live in his four-bedroom home in Salt Lake City, Utah before placing their babies with adoptive families.
The women were crammed into homes owned or rented by Petersen, sometimes with little to no prenatal care and in one house slept on mattresses laid on bare floors in what one shocked adoptive family described as a ‘baby mill,’ according court documents.
Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes told The Salt Lake City Tribune: ‘While Mr. Petersen is entitled to a presumption of innocence, our investigation uncovered evidence that he has committed horrible crimes.
‘Petersen’s illegal adoption scheme exploited highly vulnerable groups in two countries — the birth mothers and families in the Marshall Islands and the adoptive parents here in Utah.’
Petersen charged families $25,000 to $40,000 per adoption, prosecutors said.
Petersen completed a mission in the Marshall Islands, a collection of atolls and islands in the eastern Pacific, for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
He later worked in the islands and the U.S. on behalf of an international adoption agency before going to law school and becoming an adoption attorney.
The Board of Supervisors said Monday that Arizona law allows it to suspend Petersen for ‘neglect of duty,’ citing his absence from the office during his incarceration and limited access to phone and email.
An audit of Petersen’s office also found files from his adoption business on his county computer, which can’t be used for personal business, the supervisors said.
The audit also showed several calls made from Petersen’s desk phone or county-provided cellphone to Arkansas, Jamaica and the Philippines over the past six years and about 30 emails related to adoptions since Petersen became assessor in 2013.
Board Chairman Bill Gates said the supervisors will look to appoint someone to fill Petersen’s position during the suspension.
Petersen is allowed to request a hearing to defend himself. Petersen’s attorney said the law allowing elected officials to be suspended may be unconstitutional. An investigation last year by the Hawaii news website Honolulu Civil Beat last year questioned the legality of adoptions Petersen administers through his work as a private adoption attorney.
Kookie Gideon The Honolulu Civil Beat: ‘I thought that everything was going to be OK. But it wasn’t until way later that I realized, I should have gone to court.’
The Compact of Free Associations was designed to protect women in the Marhshall Islands from traveling to the U.S. to adopt out their babies without a special visa by stopping black market deals.
The Utah probe began after investigators got a call to a human-trafficking tip line in October 2017. Staff at several hospitals in the Salt Lake City area would eventually report an “influx” of women from the Marshall Islands giving birth and putting their babies up for adoption, often accompanied by the same woman.
The scheme defrauded Arizona’s Medicaid system of $800,000 because the women had no intention of remaining in the state when they applied, according to Arizona prosecutors.
Under a compact between the United States and the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Marshallese citizens can enter the U.S. and work without a visa, unless they’re traveling for the purpose of adoption, authorities said.
Petersen has faced troubles with his adoption practices in the past. An Arizona juvenile court judge in 2016 denied a couple’s request to adopt a child born to a Marshallese woman because he feared the arrangement set up by Petersen had violated that country’s law. A court of appeals reversed the decision, saying no Marshallese approval was necessary.
Authorities do not believe the women were misled into believing their children might be returned at some point.
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said adoptive parents who went through Petersen’s agency have nothing to worry about.
“No one’s going to go back and redo adoptions or any of that kind of stuff,” Brnovich said.
Petersen claims his law practice ‘has helped people all across the country in their effort to adopt children’ for 15 years.
Petersen is in his second term as assessor following a special election victory in 2014 and re-election in 2016. He served nearly eight years as the assessor’s office representative to the Arizona Legislature and as the agency’s public information officer. ”
[Daily Mail 10/29/19 by AP]
Update 4:“A woman accused of helping a metro Phoenix politician in what authorities have called an illegal adoption scheme involving women from the Marshall Islands pleaded guilty Thursday to helping arrange benefits from Arizona’s Medicaid program for expecting mothers even though the women didn’t live in the state.
Lynwood Jennet, 46, assisted the birth mothers in applying for the health benefits at the direction of Maricopa County Assessor Paul Petersen, who also works as an adoption attorney, authorities said.
Officials have said 28 Marshallese women gave birth in the Phoenix area
as part of the scheme, costing Arizona more than $800,000 in health care expenses, and that their children were put up for adoption through Petersen.
Jennet also was accused of serving as a point of contact for people in the Marshall Islands who looked for pregnant women interested in coming to the United States to give up their children for adoption.
Jennet’s plea deal to charges of fraud and conspiracy calls for two to four years in prison and the repayment of more than $800,000, though the repayment could be shared with Petersen if he’s eventually convicted on similar charges.
Prosecutors said Jennet has agreed to testify in any matter involving Petersen. Jennet’s sentencing is scheduled for March 20.”
Arizona official’s alleged adoption scheme aide pleads guilty
[KUTV 12/20/19 by JACQUES BILLEAUD/AP]
Update 5:“Maricopa County Assessor Paul Petersen, who faces dozens of felony charges in an adoption fraud scheme, resigned from his county job Tuesday.
Petersen’s resignation comes after he pledged for months that he would not resign.
In a statement, Petersen said he is an “innocent man, but the media and the Board of Supervisors have presumed my guilt rather than my innocence in this matter.”
He said he decided to resign and turn his focus to defending himself against the criminal allegations in the courtroom “where rules and the Constitution still matter.”
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors suspended Petersen in October after he was arrested on charges related to his private sector job as an adoption attorney.
The Board of Supervisors is the central governing body for the county, but it typically cannot remove other elected officials, such as Petersen, from offDuring the appeal process, the supervisors ordered an investigation of Petersen’s work performance. The report uncovered thousands of adoption-related documents on Petersen’s county laptop, including messages between Petersen and birth mothers.
The supervisors voted to uphold Petersen’s suspension on Dec. 27.
Petersen’s attorneys initially pledged to challenge his suspension in Maricopa County Superior Court, but later backed off.ice.
How big was the ‘baby mill’?:Arizona official accused of running adoption scheme
However, state law does give the board authority to suspend the assessor for up to 120 days for “neglect of duty.” The supervisors said they believed Petersen’s absence from office while incarcerated for nearly three weeks in October qualified as neglect of duty.
Petersen appealed his suspension, arguing that the assessor’s office ran properly while he was in custody and alleging that the real reason the supervisors suspended him was because of his criminal charges, which have not been proven in a court of law.
In his statement, Petersen said he fought his suspension because he never “neglected my duties” as the assessor.
“Anyone can second guess the hours I spent at the downtown office, or whether the position should be appointed rather than elected, but I performed my statutory duties with honesty and the support and loyalty of an entire office,” he said.
Petersen faces felony charges in Arizona, Arkansas and Utah. In Arizona, he is accused of illegally arranging for 28 pregnant women from the Marshall Islands to fly to Arizona, to live in a house he owned and for a doctor to deliver their babies – paid for by the state’s Medicaid system – before placing them for adoption.
Petersen has pleaded not guilty to all charges. He was released from custody after posting bail in late October.”
Elected Arizona official accused of selling babies in illegal adoption scheme resigns
[USA Today 1/7/2020 by Jessica Boehm]
Update 6:“A former elected official in metro Phoenix accused of running an illegal adoption scheme in Utah, Arizona and Arkansas involving women from the Marshall Islands pleaded guilty Thursday to fraud charges for submitting false applications to Arizona’s Medicaid system for the mothers to receive state-funded health coverage.
Paul Petersen, a Republican who served as Maricopa County’s assessor for six years until his resignation in January, faces a maximum of nearly 17 years in prison for his guilty pleas on Arizona charges of fraudulent schemes and forgery. He also agreed to pay $650,000 to the state’s Medicaid system.
He still faces human smuggling charges in Utah and Arkansas as part of the alleged scheme. His attorney, Kurt Altman, said Petersen is scheduled to enter guilty pleas on Friday in Utah and next week in Arkansas.
Petersen is charged in Utah with four counts of human smuggling, three counts each of sale of a child and communications fraud, and one count of pattern of unlawful activity. He scheduled to be in 3rd District Court at 11 a.m. Friday.
An adoption lawyer licensed to practice in Utah, Arizona and Arkansas, Petersen is expected to plead guilty to four of the felony charges as part of a plea agreement, according to the Utah Attorney General’s Office. The office will hold a news conference at 1 p.m. Friday to provide details about the agreement.
On behalf of Petersen, Altman acknowledged that his client and another person collaborated on getting state-funded health care for adoptive mothers, even though Petersen knew the women didn’t live in Arizona.
Asked by the judge whether Altman’s summary was correct, Petersen answered, “It’s true.”
He is accused of illegally paying women from the Pacific island nation to come to the United States to place their babies in at least 70 adoption cases in Arizona, Utah and Arkansas over three years. Citizens of the Marshall Islands have been prohibited from traveling to the U.S. for adoption purposes since 2003.
Authorities say the women who went to Utah to give birth received little or no prenatal care. They also said Petersen and his associates took passports from the pregnant women while they were in the U.S. to assert more control over them.
Previously, Petersen had proclaimed his innocence. His attorneys have said Petersen ran a legal adoption practice and has been vilified before his side of the story comes out.
“While Paul Petersen enjoyed a position of respect and trust in the community, he manipulated adoptive families and bilked Arizona taxpayers for his own profit,” Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said in a statement.
Petersen completed a proselytizing mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Marshall Islands, a collection of atolls and islands in the eastern Pacific.
Lynwood Jennet, who was accused of helping Petersen in the scheme, pleaded guilty late last year in Arizona to helping arrange state-funded health coverage for the expectant mothers, even though the women didn’t live in the state. She agreed to testify against Petersen.
Authorities say Jennet, who is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 21, assisted the birth mothers in applying for the health benefits at the direction of Petersen.
Officials have said 28 Marshallese women gave birth in the Phoenix area as part of the scheme, costing Arizona more than $800,000 in health care expenses, and that their children were put up for adoption through Petersen.
After Petersen was indicted in October in Arizona, the state opened a second investigation of him that centered on false paperwork that he submitted in adoption cases.
Altman said Petersen provided documents to adoptive families that contained false information incurred by a birth mother and provided records to a county juvenile court that contained false information about expenses.
No sentencing date has been set for Petersen in Arizona. ”
Ex-politician pleads guilty to fraud in adoption scheme
[Deseret News 6/18/2020 by Jacques Billeaud/AP]
Update 7:“For an average of $30,000 and $40,000, Arizona-based lawyer Paul Petersen offered his clients a full-service adoption of babies from the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The money, he assured, would go toward legal fees, the mother’s medical expenses, rent, food and doctor’s visits, according to the lawyer’s now shuttered website.
But in reality, federal prosecutors learned, Petersen used a portion of the money to smuggle dozens of pregnant Marshallese women in to the United States and offered them $10,000 once the baby was born. In June, Petersen, 45, pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit human smuggling in Arkansas and made similar guilty pleas in Arizona and Utah, where he was also licensed to practice law and also carried out the schemes.
On Tuesday, a federal judge in the Western District of Arkansas sentenced Petersen to six years in prison followed by three years of supervised release and a fine of over $100,000. He awaits sentencing in Utah and Arizona.”
[Washington Post 12/2/2020 by Jaclyn Peiser]
Update 8:“Day one of Paul Petersen’s prison sentence starts Thursday, when he checks into a federal penitentiary near El Paso. It will be another 2,249 days until he is scheduled to check out.
The former Maricopa County assessor, who confessed to running an illegal international adoption scheme that a federal judge described as a “baby-selling enterprise,” was sentenced last month to 74 months beginning Jan. 21.
His time in custody might not end there. In addition to federal charges in Arkansas, Petersen faces sentencing for fraud in Arizona and human trafficking in Utah, where he also pleaded guilty last year.
While Petersen and his attorneys maintain his guilty pleas came with a deal to ensure any state sentences run concurrent with his federal sentence, Arizona prosecutors say that is not the case.
The Arizona Attorney General’s Office said Wednesday it is not party to any agreement to cut the fraud sentence for Petersen. Based on his guilty pleas, he faces up to 16.5 years in prison in Arizona and up to 15 years in Utah.
The sentencing agreement Petersen made in Arizona is devoid of any so-called “global sentencing language,” a spokesperson for Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said.
Petersen originally was scheduled to be sentenced this month in Maricopa County Superior Court, but that since has been delayed. Whatever time Petersen gets in Arizona will be decided by a judge, Brnovich’s office said.
Petersen in June admitted to using his private adoption business to illegally transport pregnant women to the United States from the Republic of the Marshall Islands.
In Arizona, Petersen admitted to fraudulently enrolling the birth mothers in Medicaid and cheating the state’s health care system for the poor out of more than $800,000. He also admitted forging documents to jack up the fees he charged adoptive parents.”
At his sentencing hearing in Arkansas last month, U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks said Petersen ran a “get-rich-quick scheme … hidden behind the shiny veneer of a humanitarian operation.”
Brooks could have given Petersen 10 years. The judge said he would recommend that the Utah and Arizona sentences be served concurrently with the federal sentence but noted that he cannot force the state courts to agree with his recommendation. ”
Petersen read a statement in court saying it was not his intention to harm anyone and expressing remorse that some Marshallese women he worked with may have felt that he took advantage of them for his own profit.
Just days after Brooks dropped his gavel, Petersen’s lawyers filed notice that they intend to challenge the sentence. They have until Feb. 16 to file a brief with the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis.”
Petersen resigned as county assessor in 2020 to focus on his criminal defense. He was first elected in 2014 and again in 2016. His taxpayer-funded salary was about $77,000 per year. At the same time, he operated a law practice focused on adoptions.
Petersen was arrested in October 2019. Federal and state authorities said he created a pipeline to bring Marshallese women to the U.S., arranged for them to give birth in local hospitals and set up adoptions of their babies to American families for up to $40,000 each.
Authorities said Petersen and his associates convinced as many as 70 women to give up their babies.
Virtually all of the adoptions Petersen arranged through his Mesa law office were with birth mothers from the Republic of the Marshall Islands.
Citizens of the Marshall Islands, which is located near the equator in the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and the Philippines, can travel to the U.S. freely under the Compact of Free Association between the two countries.
In 2003, the compact was amended to forbid women from traveling for adoption purposes.
Contracts, texts, emails and internal documents obtained by The Arizona Republic showed Petersen treated the birth mothers and their children like monetary transactions.
He moved multiple women in and out of homes he owned in Mesa, outside Salt Lake City and Springdale, Arkansas; took cuts for living expenses out of money he promised birth mothers and made them live in cramped, squalid conditions.
A Republic investigation in April found 20 of the Marshallese women gave birth at Banner Gateway Medical Center in Mesa.
The women were admitted to the hospital within weeks of arriving in the U.S. Most did not speak English. They listed the same addresses on Medicaid forms. Yet Banner officials continued filing Medicaid paperwork for the women and submitting reimbursement claims to the state, records show.
Petersen’s adoption practice was rooted in his 1998 mission to the Marshall Islands for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
A top church official said he was disgusted and sickened by the details of Petersen’s case.
Petersen’s parents maintain online that he was forced to take a guilty plea. They have established a website to help raise funds for his defense.
The website contends Petersen spent “20 years doing good” and “facilitated the legally approved adoptions of five hundred children into homes with parents who wanted them.”
The website also says Petersen was wrongly accused of defrauding the state’s Medicaid system and indicates he has reimbursed the state.
The website maintains that the real victims in the case are Petersen and his family.”
[Arizona Central 1/20/21 by Robert Anglen]
Update 9:“A former Arizona politician who acknowledged running an illegal adoption scheme in three states that involved birth mothers from the Marshall Islands has asked an appeals court to throw out his six-year prison sentence, arguing a judge double-counted factors in the case that increased the severity of his punishment, such as concluding that he abused his position as an adoption attorney.
Paul Petersen, a Republican who served as Maricopa County’s assessor for six years and operated an adoption practice on the side, is contesting the first of three sentences he’ll receive for arranging adoptions that are prohibited by an international compact.
A month ago, he started serving the sentence for a federal conviction in Arkansas for conspiring to smuggle humans. He is scheduled to be sentenced next month on convictions for fraud in Arizona and for human smuggling in Utah.
In the Arkansas case, Petersen was given a prison term that was two years longer than sentencing recommendations had called for after a judge concluded Petersen had misled or instructed others to lie to courts in adoptions that wouldn’t have been approved had the truth been told to them.
In an appellate brief filed Tuesday, his attorney, Kurt Altman, said his client’s sentencing range should have been between three and nearly four years in prison, arguing Petersen’s actions weren’t intended to do harm and that his punishment was more severe than those given to others convicted of the same crime.
Altman said the judge’s comments “show the district court held an inordinate amount of animus toward Mr. Petersen because of his position as a lawyer.”
Charlie Robbins, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in western Arkansas, which prosecuted Petersen, declined to comment on the appeal.
Altman also argued to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals that the $100,000 fine imposed against Petersen in Arkansas was unreasonable because the judge had questioned whether Petersen’s divorce was a ruse aimed at hiding his assets and avoiding a fine.
“There was no evidence to support that Mr. Petersen’s divorce was a sham,” Altman wrote. “There was no evidence to support that after losing his law license and his political office, and after spending several years in jail, that Mr. Petersen would be able to pay a large fine.”
Authorities say Petersen illegally paid women from the Pacific island nation to come to the U.S. to give up their babies in at least 70 adoptions cases in Arizona, Utah and Arkansas. Marshall Islands citizens have been prohibited from traveling to the U.S. for adoption purposes since 2003.
Judge Timothy Brooks, who presided over the Arkansas case, had said at sentencing in December that Petersen turned what should be joyous adoption occasions into “a baby-selling enterprise” and described Petersen’s adoption practice as a “criminal livelihood.”
The judge also had said Petersen knowingly made false statements to immigration officials and state courts in carrying out the scheme and had ripped off taxpayers at the same time he was elected to serve them. Brooks flatly rejected Petersen’s claims that he initially thought he was acting within the bounds of the law, but later realized what he was doing was illegal.
Petersen is scheduled to be sentenced on March 19 in Phoenix for submitting false applications to Arizona’s Medicaid system so the mothers could receive state-funded health coverage — even though he knew they didn’t live in the state — and for providing documents to a county juvenile court that contained false information.
Petersen has said he has since paid back $670,000 in health care costs to the state of more than $800,000 that prosecutors cited in his indictment.
His sentencing in Utah on human smuggling convictions is set for March 22.
Earlier in his life, Petersen, who is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, had completed a proselytizing mission in the Marshall Islands, a collection of atolls and islands in the eastern Pacific, where he became fluent in the Marshallese language.
He quit as Maricopa County’s assessor in January 2000 amid pressure from other county officials to resign. As assessor, Petersen was responsible for determining property values in the county that encompasses Phoenix.
Petersen has said he carried out hundreds of legal adoptions after he discovered a niche locating homes for vulnerable children from the Marshall Islands and helping needy mothers who wanted a more stable family life for their children.
Before he was sentenced, Petersen wrote a letter to judge in Arkansas that said he was ashamed as a fiscal conservative for sticking Arizona taxpayers with the labor and delivery costs for the birth mothers.”
Ex-Arizona politician appeals sentence in adoption scheme
[ABC News 2/18/21 by Jacques Billeaud]
Update 10:“A former Phoenix politician already in prison on a six-year sentence for operating an illegal adoption scheme involving women from the Marshall Islands was ordered to serve another five years behind bars for defrauding Arizona’s Medicaid system in a scam to get taxpayer-funded health coverage for the birth mothers, even though he knew they didn’t live in the state.
Paul Petersen, a Republican who was Maricopa County’s elected assessor for six years and worked as an adoption attorney, on Friday received the second of three sentences stemming from the adoption scheme. His five-year Arizona punishment is to be served after he completes his six-year federal sentence for conspiring to smuggle people in Arkansas.
Petersen was dressed in an orange prison suit in the Phoenix courtroom where he offered apologies and cried as he described hurting his clients, former co-workers and his own family through his practices. “I have no one to blame but myself,” Petersen said.
Authorities have said Petersen illegally paid women from the Pacific island nation to give up their babies in at least 70 adoption cases in Arizona, Arkansas and Utah. Citizens of the Marshall Islands have been prohibited from traveling to the United States for adoption purposes since 2003.
Petersen’s third sentencing hearing for human smuggling convictions in Utah was scheduled for Monday, but it has since been postponed. The hearing hasn’t yet been rescheduled.
He was sentenced in Arizona for submitting false applications to the state’s Medicaid system so the pregnant Marshall Islands women could receive health coverage and for providing an affidavit to a court that contained false information about expenses paid to a birth mother.
“Judges in these cases were given false information and that subverted the legal process by which judge made decisions in these adoptions,” Judge Thomas Fink said shortly before sentencing Petersen.
Prosecutors say Petersen knew the birth mothers involved in the scheme didn’t meet an Arizona requirement that Medicaid recipients reside in the state, yet he still instructed a woman working in his adoption practice to line up Medicaid coverage for them. In one case, authorities said a birth mother whose medical expenses were covered by Medicaid delivered her child a day after arriving in Arizona — and was flown out of the state about two weeks later.
Prosecutors also said Petersen regularly misrepresented in filings with a juvenile court on how long he had been paying expenses for birth mothers, claiming in one instance five months of expenses for a birth mother who was in Arizona for less than a month. Petersen was accused of instructing the woman helping his adoption practice to submit a letter of residency for a birth mother who had already left Arizona in a bid to avoid having to cover her medical bills. Authorities said each adoption became more profitable for Petersen when those costs were covered by the government.
In a letter last year to the judge in the Arkansas case, Petersen said he is now ashamed, as a fiscal conservative, for sticking Arizona taxpayers with the pregnancy labor and delivery costs.
His attorney, Kurt Altman, has argued his client recognizes the wrongfulness of his actions, pleaded guilty to charges in three states, no longer has a license to practice law and has paid back $679,000 in health care costs to Arizona out of the more than $800,000 that prosecutors said the fraud cost taxpayers.
Altman has argued authorities never asked Petersen to adjust or cease his adoption practice over the years and argued his client’s practice wasn’t at issue in the Arizona case, because those convictions pertained to fraud in both health care and in the filing of court records.
Prosecutors didn’t specify the number of years in prison they were seeking for Petersen, but they said he should have to spend more time behind bars on top of his Arkansas sentence. “This wasn’t a onetime situation,” prosecutor Scott Blake said.
In the Arkansas case, Petersen was given a prison term that was two years longer than sentencing recommendations called for after a federal judge concluded Petersen misled or instructed others to lie to courts about adoptions that wouldn’t have been approved had the truth been told to court officials. That judge also flatly rejected Petersen’s claims that he initially thought he was acting within the bounds of the law, but later realized what he was doing was illegal. Petersen has appealed the Arkansas sentence.
While Petersen was accused of misusing his position as an attorney, prosecutors said he didn’t use his elected position to facilitate adoptions.
Petersen is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and earlier in his life completed a proselytizing mission in the Marshall Islands, a collection of atolls and islands in the eastern Pacific. He became fluent in the Marshallese language.
After the allegations of adoption fraud emerged, Petersen kept working as the assessor for the most populous Arizona county for nearly three months amid heavy pressure to resign — and he did so in January 2020. He was responsible for determining property values in the county that includes Phoenix.
Petersen has said he helped people with hundreds of legal adoptions after he discovered a niche locating homes for vulnerable children from the Marshall Islands and helping needy mothers who wanted a more stable family life for their children.”
Ex-politician in prison in adoption scam gets 5 more years
[Arkansas Online 3/19/21 by AP]
Update 11:“Paul Petersen was sentenced to serve concurrent jail time for his role in an adoption scheme that brought women from the Marshall Islands to Utah to have babies to be placed with Utah families. He previously pleaded guilty to human smuggling and communications fraud.
Petersen, already jailed in another state and speaking to Wednesday’s court electronically apologized to his victims, his ex-wife, his family, his friends and especially to his own children for not being part of their lives. The emotional Petersen said he previously had submitted a written statement for sentencing and said other than his apology, it stated better what he had to say that he would be able to during the sentencing hearing.
Concurrent sentencing means the Utah sentencing, including paying $50,000 restitution to the Utah Attorney General’s office for investigation costs, may not add additional prison time. He received 0 to 5 years on smuggling charges and 1 to 15 years on communications fraud.
The Utah prosecutor said the women from the Marshall Islands were kept in sometimes poor conditions in a West Valley City residence and were misled about the amount of money they would received and how the process would work. He said they were also manipulated and lied to by Petersen.
Petersen pleaded guilty to charges in three states, including Utah. Court proceedings took place online with lawyers, a victim, Peterson and a judge. Prosecution and defense lawyers spoke before one of the Utah victims spoke about the trauma caused when he and his wife discovered they had been misled about adoption.”
Ex-politician in Utah adoption scam sentenced to concurrent prison time, $50K restitution
[KJZZ 4/21/21 by Jacques Billeaud]
Update 12:“A woman who acknowledged helping a former politician in an illegal adoption scheme involving women from the Marshall Islands was sentenced to two years in prison in Arizona.
Lynwood Jennet helped submit false applications for the birth mothers to receive state-funded health coverage.
She had pleaded guilty to conspiracy and theft charges for helping the women apply for benefits at the direction of Paul Petersen.
Petersen is a Republican who served as Maricopa County assessor for six years and worked as an adoption attorney before resigning his elected post.
Petersen was sentenced to serve concurrent jail time for his role in an adoption scheme that brought women from the Marshall Islands to Utah to have babies to be placed with Utah families.
He previously pleaded guilty to human smuggling and communications fraud.
Authorities have said Petersen illegally paid women from the Pacific island nation to give up their babies in at least 70 adoption cases in Arizona, Arkansas and Utah.
Citizens of the Marshall Islands have been prohibited from traveling to the United States for adoption purposes since 2003.”
Ex-politician’s accomplice gets 2 years in Utah adoption scheme
[KJZZ 7/14/21 by AP]
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