A Roslyn attorney has been sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison and was ordered to pay $296,000 restitution to prospective parents to whom he promised babies that did not exist.
Kevin Cohen was convicted last month in Nassau County court of grand larceny, scheme to defraud, forgery, criminal impersonation and other charges.
Thirteen victims testified against Cohen, who had headed an agency called the Adoption Annex, a company that provided adoption information but was defunct as of 2008.
Prosecutors said Cohen, who represented himself at trial, had offered his services a legal expert in adoption proceedings between 2007 and his 2009 arrest. He presented hopeful couples with fake sonograms and fictitious records on forged stationary from hospitals and doctors to carry out his scam.
Cohen typically told couples 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. Couples, from Georgia, Texas, Florida and Ohio gave Cohen money believing it would be used to pay for the birth mothers’ medical costs.
In reality, the birth mothers did not exist. Cohen often told victims that the birth mother had changed her mind a the last minute, would comfort the families after a “failed adoption” and told them about another adoption, promising them that this time they would be parents.
Cohen argued that he suffers from multiple illnesses including bipolar disorder and that he was un-medicated at the time.