New Details Emerge in Baby-Selling Scam
By Greg Moran,
Sign On San Diego
| 10. 05. 2011
Three women who have pleaded guilty to conspiracy in what authorities
said was a years-long illegal baby-selling scheme also defrauded a
state health care program and illegally distributed fertility drugs to
aid the scam, federal prosecutors now say.
Those are some of the latest allegations to surface in the case
against prominent Poway fertility lawyer Theresa M. Erickson and two
other women. The trio pleaded guilty to wire fraud and conspiracy in
July and August and are awaiting sentencing in a case that captured
national attention and led to scrutiny of the legal process governing
surrogacy arrangements in California.
Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office filed documents last week
fleshing out the scheme, including excerpts from emails among the trio
and recorded telephone calls. The evidence, the court filing said, shows
how greed drove the enterprise, reducing babies to commodities and
taking risks with the health of the women carrying the children.
Erickson, Carla Chambers and Hilary Neiman are accused of soliciting
women to travel to the Ukraine to be implanted with embryos. Defense
lawyers for Erickson and Chambers did...
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