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Roslyn Attorney Sentenced to 10 to 20 Years in Prison After Scamming Adoptive Parents for More Than $300K

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

7 December 2010

Roslyn Attorney Sentenced to 10 to 20 Years in Prison

After Scamming Adoptive Parents for More Than $300K

by Promising Them Non-Existent Babies

Cohen was convicted by a jury of grand larceny, fraud, and

forgery

MINEOLA, NY – Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice announced today that Kevin

Cohen has been sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison for his conviction on grand larceny, fraud,

and forgery charges. Cohen, an attorney, stole more than $300,000 from prospective adoptive

parents by promising them babies that did not exist and went so far as to present hopeful couples

with fake sonograms and fictitious records on forged stationary from hospitals and doctors to

carry out his scam. Cohen was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $296,000 to his

victims.

Cohen, 42, of Roslyn, was convicted by a jury on November 1 of Grand Larceny in the Second

Degree, 11 counts of Grand Larceny in the Third Degree, three counts of Criminal Possession of

Forgery Devices, Attempted Grand Larceny in the Third Degree, Scheme to Defraud in the First

Degree, 10 counts of Forgery in the Third Degree, eight counts of Criminal Possession of a

Forged Instrument in the Third Degree, and two counts of Criminal Impersonation in the Second

Degree.

During the four-week trial, the jury heard testimony from 13 prospective parents who had been

scammed by Cohen who previously had headed an agency called the Adoption Annex. The

Adoption Annex had been set up to provide information to prospective adoptive parents, but was

defunct by 2008.

In most cases Cohen’s adoption scam scenario was similar. He would tell the couple that he had

a young, unmarried mother who lived in either in Nebraska, Pennsylvania, or Arizona who

wished to give up her baby for adoption.

Rice said that from October 2007 until the time of his arrest in September 2009, Cohen held

himself out as a legal expert in adoption proceedings. He was able to obtain large sums of money

from couples to arrange adoptions. Couples, including those from Georgia, Texas, Florida, and

Ohio, gave Cohen money believing it would be held in escrow to pay for the medical costs and

other expenses of birth mothers who wished to put their babies up for adoption.

One couple paid Cohen $60,000 after he claimed that he had located two prospective out-of-state

birth mothers who were looking to give up their babies for adoption. In reality, these birth

mothers did not exist and were fabricated by Cohen. Cohen went as far as to create forged

medical records and information for the fake birth mothers which he gave to couples looking to

adopt.

One couple said that their two other recently-adopted children had turned over their life savings

of $500 to help their parents with the cost of adopting another baby. Another woman waited for

days in a Pennsylvania motel room down the road from a hospital where Cohen said the

birthmother was going to deliver. The hopeful adoptive mother returned home with no baby after

Cohen told her that the mother had changed her mind. Often Cohen would comfort the families

after a “failed adoption.” In order to assure that the family would not request their money back,

Cohen would tell the family about another adoption situation, promising them that this time they

would be parents.

“Kevin Cohen preyed on people at their most vulnerable with no remorse about what he was

doing,” Rice said. “He stole more than just money from these couples. He stole their dream of

making a family.”

Deputy Chief Karen Bennett of the Street Narcotics & Gang Bureau and Assistant District

Attorney Andrew Garbarino of the Public Corruption Bureau are prosecuting the case for the

DA’s Office. Cohen is representing himself.

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2010 Dec 7