3 Former Attorneys Charged With "Baby-Selling Ring"

Hilary Neiman, 32, a former Maryland attorney has been sentenced to five months in prison and seven months of home detention for her role in what federal prosecutors said was a "baby-selling ring." She was also ordered to forfeit $133,000 in profits and set aside $20,000 for restitution.

Neiman pleaded guilty along with two other defendants, San Diego attorney Theresa Erickson and "gestational carrier" Carla Chambers, of Las Vegas, in San Diego Federal Court to wire fraud and other charges.

The other two defendants are scheduled to be sentenced in 2012.

Erickson, the organizer of the ring, with the help of Chambers, hired women to go to Ukraine to be implanted with embryos created from the sperm and eggs of donors.

The women were paid between $38,000 and $40,000 and couples were charged between $100,000 and $150,000 for a baby.

Erickson would then file court documents falsely claiming that the baby was part of an existing pre-pregnancy agreement between the woman carrying the fetus and the couple; this allowed the couple to be listed as the parents of the child on the birth certificate.

Erickson knew that this was a requirement by law to prevent the "buying and selling (shopping) of babies.

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