Paul Petersen (criminal)
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Paul Petersen is a former public official in Arizona who was accused of smuggling pregnant women from the Marshall Islands to at least three different states, as part of an adoption scheme. He pled guilty to charges of human smuggling, communication fraud, fraud and other charges in June 2020[1] and was sentenced to six years in prison in an Arkansas federal case in December 2020.[2] His actions violated a compact between the United States and the Marshall Islands, which bans Marshallese people from traveling to the United States for adoptions unless they have a specific visa.[3]
A 1983 ruling excludes Marshall Islands citizens from entering the United States for adoption purposes; they are allowed to travel for the purposes of working or visiting.[4]
Petersen used this legal opening and charged couples $35,000 to adopt children from the Islands, and hired individuals to recruit pregnant women to give birth in the United States, then give their children up for adoption. In compensation the women received $10,000 and the cost of their travel was covered. Some adoptive families denied being made aware that Petersen was paying the women involved, and many of the women claim that the only medical care they received was during labor pains or while they were giving birth.[3] Petersen illegally accessed state funded medical benefits, and falsified residency information, to ensure medical care for the women, totaling nearly $814,000 in Arizona Medicaid funds.[5]
One adoptive couple who worked with Petersen went to a home that housed some of the women involved in the scheme. They later told investigators they believed the home to be a part of a "baby mill" and they saw many women sleeping on mattresses on the floor.[3] After the adoptions occurred, the birth mothers either moved to Arkansas or returned to the Marshall Islands.[6]