Former Maricopa County Assessor Paul Petersen pleads guilty in adoption fraud scheme

[DesertRat]

Former Maricopa County Assessor Paul Petersen, who was accused of running an adoption fraud scheme by bringing women from the Marshall Islands to the U.S. to give birth and then charging families to adopt the babies, pleaded guilty to two counts of forgery and fraudulent schemes Thursday morning. He faces jail time and fines up to $650,000.

Petersen also is expected to plead guilty to charges in Utah and federal court in Alabama.

Petersen first pleaded not guilty to the Arizona charges in early November. He was still the Maricopa County assessor at the time, although the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to suspend him. He resigned “reluctantly” on Jan. 7.

Petersen was arrested in October 2019 in connection with the adoption fraud allegations. He was facing charges human smuggling, sale of a child, fraud, forgery and conspiracy to commit money laundering in Arizona, Arkansas and Utah. Public court documents showed that Petersen had been involved in adoptions of Marshallese babies as far back as 2005, well before he was appointed to the position of county assessor in 2013. Petersen won a special election in 2014 and was re-elected to the office in 2016.

https://www.azfamily.com/news/continuing_coverage/adoption_fraud_investigation/former-maricopa-county-assessor-paul-petersen-pleads-guilty-in-adoption-fraud-scheme/article_cebe714c-b18f-11ea-9928-ebd8f03d342d.html

[Wellstone ruled]

1. This is a landmark

plead. Watch for more cases to emerge.