Bolingbrook Woman Sentenced For Adoption Scam
Bolingbrook Woman Sentenced For Adoption Scam
Bolingbrook Woman Sentenced For Adoption Scam
$97,835 In Restitution Added To Prison Term
UPDATED: 4:28 PM CDT May 4, 2004
CHICAGO -- A 56-year-old Bolingbrook woman was sentenced Tuesday to serve 30
months in prison for collecting more than $95,000 in subsidy checks from two
state departments after making false claims about children she had cared for
and adopted.
U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer sentenced Esi Antobam (sketched, left),
of 355 Pheasant Creek Drive in Bolingbrook, to the high end of the penalty
range of 24 to 30 months in prison.
In determining the penalty range, Pallmeyer found Antobam was not eligible for
credit for accepting responsibility for her actions because she had obstructed
justice by telling an 18-year-old man she brought from Ghana not to talk to
authorities about anything regarding the household.
Antobam also was ordered to serve 3 years on supervised release and to pay
$97,835 restitution to the two state departments.
Prior to the sentence being imposed, Antobam said through an interpreter, "I'd
like you to know I'm very regretful. As I hope God has forgiven me, I hope to
receive your forgiveness."
Antobam pleaded guilty earlier this year to one count of mail fraud for
fraudulently collecting monthly child-care benefits from the Illinois
Department of Human Services and adoption subsidy payments from the Illinois
Department of Children and Family Services between 1999 and 2002.
Antobam said in a plea agreement with prosecutors she falsely stated in DHS
applications for child-care benefits that she worked outside the home from 8
a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and needed funds to pay a child care
provider to care for her 11 children.
She falsely claimed her child-care provider was her niece who lived at the
defendant's Bolingbrook address. The niece actually lived in New York and was
not Antobam's child-care provider, according to the plea.
Antobam forged her niece's signature on checks mailed from the department to
her home and deposited the money into her own bank accounts.
In January 1999, Antobam adopted three children ages 10, 11 and 12, and
received adoption subsides in the amount of $3,055 per month from DCFS. But in
2001, she sent the children to live in Ghana.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Valarie Hays told the judge, "She used that money to
live on, while those children were in Ghana."
DCFS continued sending subsidy payments to Antobam because the agency was not
notified about the residency change.
In addition, Antobam stipulated to using U.S. passports to bring illegal aliens
into the country and providing them false identification documents.
Hays said Antobam brought four children -- the 18-year-old man, another male
teen, a 16-year-old female teen, and a young female child -- from Ghana to live
with her.
The older children told authorities Antobam provided them with false
identification documents and told them to get jobs, Hays told the judge. She
also had the children clean her house.
Defense lawyer Gary Ravitz said the situation was similar to other households
in America where children old enough to obtain employment are told to do so by
their parents while still completing chores at home.
Ravitz also pointed out there was no evidence showing Antobam used the money
earned by the children to support herself.
He asked the judge to impose the low end of the penalty range so Antobam could
get out of prison sooner and take her children out of DCFS custody.
Hays said authorities located the three adopted boys in Ghana and brought them
back to Illinois. The boys, who were in state custody, tested positive for
exposure to malaria and one of the boys had lesions on his body, she added.
But Ravitz said, "Ms. Antobam is not the demon she's made out to be."
He said the boys were taken care of in Ghana, and were enrolled in the
appropriate schools. Two of the boys lived with a minister, Ravitz added.
No one could say with whom the third boy lived in Ghana.
Ravitz also noted a DCFS report stating the boys were happy in Ghana.
In addition, Hays said the 18-year-old man was deported and the two girls were
returned to their families in Ghana. The other boy remained in state custody.
Antobam has been in federal custody since her arrest in October 2002.
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