Arizona elected official pleads guilty in baby-selling scheme – By Kate Feldman (New York Daily News) / June 21 2020
The Arizona county assessor who shipped pregnant women from the Marshall Islands to Utah, then placed their babies up for adoption for a price, has pleaded guilty, according to the Department of Justice.
Paul Peterson pleaded guilty to three counts of fraudulent schemes and one count of forgery in the Arizona portion of his multi-state smuggling operation.
Petersen was indicted in October in an illegal adoption scheme that involved recruiting, transporting and paying pregnant women from the Marshall Islands $10,000 each, then adopting out their babies after they were born for an average of $35,000 each, according to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.
He allegedly transported dozens of women into Utah between August 2016 and August 2019, providing “little to no prenatal care,” officials said.
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