Petersen had a partner in his adoption business
Bright Star Adoptions made no secret about its Marshall Islands program.
The Mesa firm put the price for adopting a child in writing: $35,000, half due at contract.
Hopeful parents had no idea its operators were involved in supplying children through an international pipeline that ended with pregnant mothers crammed into run-down buildings in at least three states.
An investigation by The Arizona Republic found Bright Star was one of the adoption agencies Maricopa County Assessor Paul Petersen used in a lucrative business to put Marshallese babies into the hands and homes of American parents.
Federal and state authorities had another name for it: Human smuggling. They accused Petersen of orchestrating an illegal adoption scheme out of his Mesa law office that involved allegations of trafficking in Utah, financial crimes in Arkansas and Medicaid fraud in Arizona.
Authorities have focused only on Petersen and his law firm. Bright Star is not named in any indictment. Nor is its operator, a Mesa social worker named Linda Gansler, who formed the business with Petersen and offered adoptive parents the chance to bring home Marshallese babies.
Her relationship with Petersen goes back more than a decade and involves another adoption agency she operated in Colorado called Adopt Triad Consultants, records and interviews show.
Gansler, who has handled international and domestic adoptions at agencies in three states, appeared to take steps this week to shield her relationship with Petersen. Portions of Bright Star’s website were shut down, and social media accounts were closed.
Among items removed from Bright Star’s website was Gansler’s biography, which highlighted her decision to go into business with Petersen.
“We had worked together for years at Adopt Triad Consultants, LLC,” she said. “I am thrilled to be part of this wonderful fresh agency.”
Gansler would not talk about her adoption business with Petersen and hung up when reached by phone.
But she was open, friendly and effusive with parents who contacted her about adoptions at Bright Star. They said Gansler bragged about her longstanding ties to Petersen and their work adopting Marshallese children at her agencies in Arizona and Colorado.
Gansler highlighted Petersen and “our Marshall Islands program” in emails to Jessica Hernandez, who contacted Bright Star in March about adoptions. The emails came with fee schedules, service agreements, applications and program guides.
A Bright Star contact sheet subtitled “Marshallese Adoptions” asked adoptive parents to “please check out our program” and referred them to the website of Petersen’s law firm, privateadoptionlaw.com, which was taken down last week.
“Or you can call Linda Gansler for more detailed information,” the form stated.
Hernandez said Gansler was upfront about the Marshall Islands adoptions and her relationship with Petersen.
“She said she had been working with this guy (Petersen),” Hernandez told The Republic. “She did tell me she worked with him at her old agency, Triad in Colorado ... and was working with him in Colorado and Arizona.”
Bright Star requires Medicaid for birth moms
Bright Star required birth mothers to meet three key criteria before they could give up their babies for adoption, according to Hernandez:
❚ Mothers had to go through a counseling program at Bright Star to prepare them for adoption and to ensure they wouldn’t back out of the process.
❚ They had to have a place to live, approved and coordinated by Bright Star.
❚ They had to be enrolled in the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the state’s Medicaid program for low-income residents.
Hernandez said Gansler told her the fees collected from adoptive parents went to offset the costs of these services and to pay for rent and cellphones for the birth mothers. Hernandez said Gansler made it clear the fees weren’t exclusive to Marshallese adoptions but for all Bright Star adoptions.
“That was typical,” Hernandez said. “When you get paired with a birth mom, you were given a cost sheet for that specific mom. Part of process is the birth mom chooses you, and you’re agreeing to pay (fees) as part of the contract.”
Hernandez said Gansler used AHCCCS as a way to reassure adoptive parents, to make clear birth mothers had access to health care. Gansler said she would help to enroll birth mothers in the state Medicaid program as part of the process, according to Hernandez.
In Arizona, Petersen and a Mesa woman named Lynwood Jennet, who allegedly served as a facilitator and translator for the Marshallese adoptions, are accused of fraudulently enrolling 28 women — who gave birth to 29 children, paid for by AHCCCS. One woman was enrolled twice, court records show.
Authorities accused Petersen and Jennet of swindling AHCCCS out of more than $800,000 as part of the Marshall Islands adoption scheme.
Marshall Islands nationals do not qualify for Medicaid in Arizona unless they are U.S. citizens or lawful, permanent U.S. residents of at least five years.
The Marshall Islands have a “compact of free association” with the United States, which means citizens are allowed to live and work in the U.S. They can qualify for federal housing assistance but not for Medicaid and other federal safety-net programs, such as food stamps.
Authorities allege Petersen and Jennet arranged to bring Marshallese women to the U.S., forced them to live together in squalid conditions with the express purpose of giving birth and placing their babies up for adoption.
Petersen and Jennet “fraudulently represented” that the pregnant women were Arizona residents, authorities said in court filings.
None of the indictments names a specific adoption agency.
In addition to Bright Star, Petersen operated another company called Adoption Advocate Associates in Mesa. Records show Petersen formed the company in 2015 and terminated it in March.
Were the Marshallese women Arizona residents?
Hernandez said Gansler repeatedly told her Bright Star did not get involved in international adoptions, and birth mothers were Arizona residents, including those involved in the Marshallese program.
“She made it seem like all the women were Arizona residents,” Hernandez said. “She told me the Marshallese women were immigrants living in Arizona ... that there was a community of Mashallese women living in Phoenix.”
Hernandez, who is an environmental engineer living in Scottsdale, said she and her husband turned to Bright Star after researching several Arizona adoption agencies.
She said they struggled for years with infertility before considering adoption. Hernandez said they weren’t seeking
out a specific type of adoption but were interested in available options.
She said Gansler, with whom she talked for more than an hour on the phone before exchanging emails, was informative about the process and direct about fees.
“She seemed to care very much about the birth mothers,” Hernandez said, adding Gansler made it personal by sharing her own story as the mother of multiple adopted children.
Gansler offered up the Marshallese program as a possible choice for Hernandez and touted her work with Petersen for the past 15 years.
“She said she worked with him in Colorado and opened up the agency here in Arizona because there is a Marshallese community here,” Hernandez said.
Hernandez said she and her husband ultimately decided not to adopt but to pursue in vitro fertilization in hopes of having a baby. Still, she said she was stunned when she read about Petersen’s arrest.
Hernandez said she immediately wondered about Gansler.
“I was shook to my core,” she said. “I bought everything she was selling.”
Law firm, adoption agency have many ties
Petersen and Gansler are associates in Bright Star. On its website, Bright Star identifies Peterson as the company’s inhouse attorney.
State records show Peterson and Gansler formed the company in 2017. They were the only two “members” named on paperwork related to the limited liability company, which is described as member-managed.
Bright Star’s only known address is Petersen’s law firm on North Hibbert Street near downtown Mesa. Petersen is also Bright Star’s agent for service, meaning all official paperwork for the company is directed to him.
Gansler identified herself in emails as Bright Star’s executive director and listed the company website in her salutation: “brightstaradopt.com, where your adoption journey begins.”
Beginning Oct. 9, Bright Star’s social media and much of its public online presence abruptly ended.
Portions of Bright Star’s website that had been open to the public were made private and password-protected. Links to Gansler’s blog and information about Petersen’s role with the company are no longer available.
The company’s Twitter account @brightstaradopt went dark, along with its Instagram account and the company’s Facebook page.
Petersen’s law firm, which specialized in adoptions, was one of several addresses authorities raided during an Oct. 8 search. Authorities also searched private residences in Arizona, Utah and Arkansas where they say Marshallese women were made to live before giving birth to babies that were adopted.
Records show Petersen owns two of those residences.
At least eight Marshallese women were found in a Mesa fourplex on Brown Road that Petersen purchased in 2017. Neighbors told The Republic they have seen pregnant women and children going in and out of the units for about a year.
Records listed Peterson’s wife as the seller. Raquel “Rocky” Petersen is a licensed real estate agent in Arizona.
Reached by phone last week, Raquel Petersen initially said she would happily discuss her husband’s adoption business and the accusations against him, but later did not respond to calls and texts.
Property records show in 2017 that Petersen also purchased a home on Florlita Avenue in West Valley City, Utah. Authorities said as many as 15 pregnant women lived in the house, some sleeping on mattresses on bare floors.
Petersen’s lender on the West Valley City home was atypical, a trust called the Lars Christensen Trust rather than a bank or traditional mortgage company.
Christensen did not return repeated phone messages or respond to a written request left at his Mesa home near Las Sendas Golf Club. Records show he is an associate with Petersen in an investment business.
Petersen was elected as Maricopa County assessor in 2014 and again in 2016. His taxpayer-funded salary is about $77,000 per year, but his attendance record was spotty.
County parking records obtained by The Republic show he used a garage reserved for county government workers 53 times from Jan. 1 through Oct. 2, 2019. On those days, he spent about four hours in the office.
Petersen remains in custody. He has been transferred to federal authorities. His next court appearance is scheduled in Arkansas on Oct. 29. He remains the county assessor. The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and Gov. Doug Ducey have called for him to resign.
Flurry of business activity in 2017
For Peterson and Gansler, 2017 was a busy a year.
As he bought houses in Mesa and West Valley City, she resigned as head of Adopt Triad Consultants in Colorado.
Gansler’s resignation occurred in September, days before the launch of Bright Star, according to corporation records filed in Arizona and Colorado.
On Monday, two years after Gansler stepped down, Adopt Triad’s new executive director denied having any affiliation with Gansler or Peterson.
Maria Spencer, who was reached via cellphone, stopped short of saying she didn’t know Gansler before claiming she had nothing else to say and hanging up.
Records show Spencer owes her job to Gansler.
Spencer was named as Gansler’s replacement during a special meeting of the Adopt Triad board. The five members in attendance included Gansler, Gansler’s husband and at least two of their relatives, according to documents filed with the Colorado secretary of state in 2017.
“All members are sad to see Linda Henning Gansler step down but are very excited to see where Maria will take the company in the future,” an official account of the board meeting stated.
Spencer’s picture was removed from Adopt Triad’s website shortly after being contacted by The Republic on Monday.
It’s unclear if Adopt Triad played a role in the adoption of Marshallese babies. Gansler did not describe her work with Petersen at Adopt Triad.
But records show Petersen has been facilitating adoptions involving Marshallese women since 1998, after serving as a missionary in the islands for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Authorities alleged in court filings that Marshallese adoptions have been a key component of Petersen’s business since 2005.
Gansler started Adopt Triad in 2010 as a nonprofit under the name Triad Adoption Consultants Inc. in Colorado Springs. In 2013, she changed the name to Adopt Triad Consultants.
Adopt Triad’s last publicly available tax return was filed in 2015. It shows the nonprofit did little in the name of charity. Triad took in about $296,000 in revenue and spent $236,749 — none of it on grants or contributions.
The bulk of its expenses, $194,000, went for salaries. Another $34,000 went for office costs, rent and travel.
The tax filing shows no expenses were related directly to program services, meaning the money was spent outside of the agency’s specific nonprofit mission.
Gansler, as president, was the only company official listed on the tax forms, but she didn’t report receiving any income.
Gansler’s affiliation with Adopt Triad didn’t end with her move to Bright Star.
She remained as a consultant to the company and was charged with creating the company’s core operational manual, according to documents filed with the Colorado secretary of state in 2017.
A history of adoption work
Gansler is a licensed social worker in Arizona and Colorado and previously was licensed in Michigan.
She worked for at least two other adoption agencies before setting up Adopt Triad, including one in Michigan and another in Tucson that was accused in 2008 of consumer fraud.
The Arizona Attorney General’s Office said Commonwealth Adoptions International Inc. intentionally deceived parents who paid for adoptions. In its complaint, authorities said the agency bilked clients out of $215,000 after it was forced to shut down.
Commonwealth officials denied the allegations at the time and told The Arizona Daily Star that they were working with parents to help settle disputes.
The company closed offices in several states after losing the accreditation needed for most foreign adoptions.
Gansler was not on Commonwealth’s board. Employment records show she worked as an adoption specialist at Commonwealth’s Tuscon office in the mid-2000s, serving as a case manager for couples seeking international adoptions.
In 2005, Gansler was featured in an article about adoption published by the Mountaineer, a newspaper for the U.S. Army’s 7th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, near Colorado Springs.
Gansler, who was helping a Colorado Springs couple adopt a baby from Guatemala, described her role as a resource for the adopted child, not the adoptive parents.
To qualify for the adoption, the couple had to pass a home study evaluation by Gansler.
“(Adoption) is not about giving couples a child,” Gansler told the Mountaineer. “It’s about matching a child with a family where he or she will thrive.”