Arizona official brought women to the US to give birth and charged families to adopt the babies

[FM123]

Wow. These repugs are just never fail to disgust me.

(CNN) A former Arizona county assessor pleaded guilty to running an adoption fraud scheme that involved bringing pregnant women from the Marshall Islands to the United States to give birth, authorities said Thursday.

Paul Petersen, 45, was an adoption lawyer licensed in Utah and Arizona, and an elected assessor for Maricopa County.

Petersen pleaded guilty to three counts of fraudulent schemes and one count of forgery, all felonies in Arizona. He operated the international adoption scheme in Arizona, Arkansas and Utah, according to the the latter's office of the Attorney General.

In Utah, Petersen is accused of running an enterprise to transport pregnant Marshallese women to the state for adoptions. The women came from the islands in the central Pacific and were housed in residences he allegedly owned or leased.

He transported or secured transportation for more than 40 pregnant Marshallese women to Utah between August 2016 and August 2019, federal prosecutors said.

"The defendant collected proceeds from each adoption in the form of fees paid to him by adoptive parents," the documents said.

(Read More) https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/19/us/marshall-islands-paul-petersen-adoption-scheme/index.html