LBN commentator, Theresa Erickson, pleads guilty in baby selling ring

The Legal Broadcast Network has learned that long time surrogacy law commentator Theresa Erickson pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiracy to commit wire fraud  for transmitting false documents to the Superior Court of California, County of San Diego and falsifying information to the couples whose babies were born through surrogates she recruited.

According to ABC News, Erickson and two partners...Hilary Neiman, 32, a Maryland attorney, and Carla Chambers, 51, of Las Vegas pleaded guilty to the scheme. The complex process invloved recruiting women to act as surrogates and travel to the Ukraine where regulations are lax for the procedure. In the U.S. doctors are required to make sure a surrogacy agreement has been extablished before the procedure can be done. Once the women were in the second trimester, Erickson is accused of putting the babies on the market under false pretenses saying the original surrogate parents had cancelled the agreement.

It is reported that surrogates were paid between $38,000 and $40,000 and the parents paid as much as $150,000. She is said to have placed 12 babies in homes. None of these children will be removed as the parents were not aware of the illegal nature of the scheme.

Erickson is said to have made $70,000 on the fraud.

Erickson will be sentenced on Oct. 28 and faces up to five years in prison.

She faces a $250,000 federal fine and was ordered to pay $10,000 in restitution to each of the 12 families.