Houston woman gets 2 years in prison for adoption scam
A Houston woman was found guilty of mail fraud tied to an adoption fraud scheme that took advantage of hopeful parents.
Simone Swenson, 46, paired numerous families to a single birth mother, in a scheme called “double-matching,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
After Swenson was convicted in a jury trial in federal court of two counts of mail fraud, Chief U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal said Friday that the woman lied, made false representations and concealed information from vulnerable people who wanted to adopt children. Rosenthal sentenced Swenson to two years in prison.
“Simone Swenson took advantage of hopeful adoptive parents who have already been through a difficult journey,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Perrye K. Turner. “She used these couples as her personal piggy bank and took advantage of them financially and emotionally.”
FBI agents in Houston investigated Swenson’s operation for seven years, Turner said.
The agent said Swenson’s
“greed and deceit forever scarred (people) who simply wanted to form a family.”
Swenson’s attorneys argued that she was negligent and ran her business badly but didn’t intend to defraud the prospective parents.
Prosecutors say Swenson owned and operated Sans Pareil Center for Children and Family Services, which was licensed to operate as a foster care and child adoption agency at the time.
From around January 2013 to January 2014, Swenson defrauded numerous families in her scheme, according to prosecutors. In addition to double-matching the victims, U.S. attorneys said, Swenson received money and property under false pretenses. She received around $20,000 to $30,000 from each family.
After families sent Swenson the money, she would lie or manipulate them to get out of the arrangement, prosecutors said. The families testified that Swenson would blame the birth mother, saying she changed her mind, or would chide the families for lacking funds.
The hopeful parents who testified said they had bought airplane tickets, planned hotel stays and prepared nurseries for the children they expected.
Swensen’s case caught media attention in February 2019, when the original judge banished a female prosecutor from the courtroom. U.S. District Judge Lynn N. Hughes also got into an unusual standoff with U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Patrick during the court proceedings in the case.
Swenson originally was charged with two counts of wire fraud in the same scheme but was acquitted of those charges in another trial. She is still on bail, and her surrender date to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons in pending.