Ringleader of US-Marshall Islands illegal adoption scheme hit with more prison time
The man at the centre of an illegal adoption scheme involving Marshall Islands babies is facing even more time in American prison after sentencing by an Arizona court.
Paul Petersen was an adoption lawyer and county assessor in the US state of Arizona, who was already serving a six year federal sentence for conspiring to smuggle Marshall Islands women and babies in the state of Arkansas.
Petersen will now spend at least 11 years in jail after being hit with an additional five year sentence for running a similar scheme in Arizona.
His crimes included fraudulently enrolling Marshallese birth mothers in Arizona's Medicaid system and cheating the state out of USD $800,000 as part of his adoption business.
One of the US-based adoptive mothers told the court that Petersen's crimes had caused great damage to her family.
"The most difficult aspect is the damage done to us emotionally as well as the relationship between us, our daughter and our now extended Marshallese family," she said.
"I am afraid to refer to my daughter's heritage as Marshallese because that may colour others' opinion of us and our situation, and raise the question 'Was she trafficked?' in regards to both our daughter and her biological mother."
The Marshall Islands has been regarded as a popular source for US adoptions for decades, with Marshallese able to travel and live freely in the US.
The Petersen case is not the first example of exploitation in the US of Marshallese mothers and babies and efforts have been made in both countries to curb the practice.
Marshall Islands Attorney-General Richard Hickson helped to draft stronger legislation to protect Marshallese from exploitation.
Mr Hickson said the Petersen decision showed that US courts were taking the practice seriously.
"It underlines the importance of this type of case and how important it is that smuggling of children or the movement of children without the proper authority is a very very serious offence," he told Pacific Beat.
"Cases like Petersen was basically brokering are both dangerous to the birth parents and the unborn and later born child."
Mr Hickson said he did not think there were other operators like Petersen running similar schemes in the US involving the Marshall Islands.
"I don't think there's likely to be other offenders found," he said.
"Unfortunately because of the pandemic we've had to stop adoptions happening in the Marshall Islands because the adopting parents can't come to the Marshall Islands because we've closed our borders to keep the virus out."
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