Arizona Republican politician who ran illegal adoption scheme paying 70 women from the Marshall Islands to give up their babies reports to prison this Thursday for six-year sentence
Former Arizona county assessor Paul Petersen who admitted running an illegal adoption scheme in three states involving women from the Marshall Islands is set to report to federal prison on Thursday to begin serving his six-year sentence
A former politician from Arizona must report to prison on Thursday to begin serving the first of three sentences for running an illegal adoption scheme that paid pregnant women from the Marshall Islands to come to the US to give up their babies.
Paul Petersen, a Republican who served as Maricopa County assessor for six years and also worked as an adoption attorney, was sentenced to six years after pleading guilty in federal court in Arkansas to conspiring to commit human smuggling.
Petersen, who has acknowledged running the adoption scheme, is awaiting sentencing in state courts in Arizona for fraud convictions and in Utah for human smuggling and other convictions. Sentencing dates have not yet been set for those cases.
He could face additional time on state charges after he completes his federal sentence.
Prosecutors have said Petersen illegally paid women from the Pacific island nation to give up their babies in at least 70 adoption cases in Arizona, Utah and Arkansas. Marshall Islands citizens have been prohibited from traveling to the US for adoption purposes since 2003.
Peterson, right, pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit human smuggling. Petersen also is awaiting sentencing for related convictions in Arizona and in Utah
Peterson, pictured during a court appearance, still faces charges in cases of conspiracy, theft, forgery and fraud schemes
How the adoption scheme worked
Petersen will serve his six-year sentence in the Arkansas case at a federal prison near El Paso, Texas.
The judge gave him two years longer in prison than sentencing guidelines recommended, describing Petersen's adoption practice as a 'criminal livelihood' and saying Petersen knowingly made false statements to immigration officials and state courts in carrying out the scheme.
'He subverted what should be a joyous time for everyone into a baby-selling enterprise. The conduct Mr. Petersen engaged in violates public policy. We don't sell babies. That is the public policy of the United States of America,' Judge Timothy Brooks said during Petersen's virtual sentencing hearing last month.
Petersen has appealed the punishment.
In Arizona, he pleaded guilty to fraud charges for submitting false applications to the state's Medicaid system so the birth mothers could receive state-funded health coverage - even though he knew they didn't live in Arizona - and for providing documents to a juvenile court that contained false information.
Petersen has said he has since paid back to the state $670,000 of more than $800,000 in health care costs that prosecutors cited in his indictment.
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.
Prosecutors said the passports of some birth mothers were taken away to prevent them from leaving the United States and that they were threatened with arrest if they tried to back out of adoptions.
The money Petersen made from the adoption scheme helped pay for his lavish lifestyle, including expensive trips, luxury cars and multiple residences, prosecutors said.
A Utah home that was owned by an Peterson is pictured. It was one of the homes where Peterson would have the women from the Marshall Islands stay
Alanna Mabey holds her grandson in front of her home in West Valley City, Utah. Petersen used homes like this one to lodge pregnant women from the Marshall Islands who were offered money to come to the U.S. to give up their children for adoption
Earlier in his life, Petersen, who is a member of The Church of Jesus Christs 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 his elected job as Maricopa County's assessor last year amid pressure from other county officials to resign. As assessor, Petersen was responsible for determining property values in the county that encompasses Phoenix.