Woman Held in Alleged Baby-Selling Operation

Federal agents arrested an Irvine woman Friday and accused her of running an international baby-selling operation that arranged for pregnant Hungarian women to enter the country illegally and sell their babies--sometimes for up to $80,000--to adoptive parents.

Marianne Gati, 48, was arrested on suspicion of mail and wire fraud by federal agents who have been working with Hungarian National Police to investigate the allegations that Gati arranged to sell as many as 30 babies.

According to federal agents, Gati and an unidentified Hungarian associate provided airline tickets and other documents for the women.

Gati, also known as Maria Rozsa, a Canadian citizen who is Hungarian-born, housed the women in a house across from her home, court documents state.

She promised to pay each mother “$1,000 for a baby with dark features and $12,000 for a baby with light features,” according to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court.

Authorities arrested Gati after she tried to transfer $51,000 from a bank account. Agents feared she would leave the country, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Daniel J. McCurrie.

Gati proclaimed her innocence during an appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Elgin E. Edwards on Friday. “I’m going to prove it’s not true,” she told the magistrate.

H. Dean Steward, the head of the federal public defender’s office in Santa Ana, who represented Gati, said she insisted that she operated “a legitimate adoption consulting agency.”