Arizona official smuggled pregnant women into the US and sold their children - ForumDaily
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Arizona official smuggled pregnant women into the U.S. and sold their babies

Paul Petersen organized flights for pregnant women from the Marshall Islands to Arkansas, Arizona or Utah, where they stayed in houses that he paid for. The man sold his children at a great profit, says Vice.

Photo: video frame YouTube / 12 News

An Arizona adoption attorney who smuggled pregnant women into the United States for 12 years and then sold their children was sentenced to more than six years in federal prison and a fine of over $ 100.

On Tuesday December 1, 45-year-old Paul Petersen received the first of three different sentences from a federal judge in the Western District of Arkansas in connection with an adoption scheme involving women from the Marshall Islands, according to the US Department of Health.

Petersen was arrested in connection with the scheme in October 2019. He was a Maricopa County Assessor at the time, but resigned in January 2020 and pleaded guilty to the case in June.

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“He turned what should have been a joy into a child trafficking enterprise,” District Judge Timothy L. Brooks said. “Petersen’s conduct violates public policy.” We do not sell babies. This is the public policy of the United States of America."

For over a decade, according to USA Today, Petersen had the opportunity to pursue his plan by creating a network of women who kept in touch with his accomplice in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. This person was a contact person for pregnant women who wanted to come to the United States, and over the years there were about 40 of them. By contacting them directly, Petersen covered the costs of obtaining passports and organized their flights to Arkansas, Arizona or Utah, where the women stayed in houses that he paid for.

While the women remained in the United States, Petersen worked to falsify their residency papers to secure Medicaid to cover the costs of having children. According to the Washington Post, Petersen also confiscated the women's passports to make sure they went through the scheme.

Petersen charged foster families who were unaware of the scheme up to $ 40 per adoption, telling them that the money would go to cover the mother's expenses. Upon adoption, Petersen paid the mothers less than $ 000 to participate in the program, paid for the flight to bring them home or to any state they wished, and put the rest of the money in his pocket.

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In addition to the obvious crime of smuggling pregnant women into the United States and keeping them in poor conditions, Petersen violated the 1983 agreement between the Republic and the United States, which prohibits people from traveling between the two countries for adoption.

“The defendant in this case violated the laws of three states and two countries in the course of his criminal scheme,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney David Clay Fowlkes.

This is not Petersen's last appearance in court. The disgraced attorney pleaded guilty back in June in Arizona and Utah and is awaiting sentencing in both states. According to USA Today, he will have 14 days to appeal the verdict.

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