The Bobster
Senior News Editor since 2004
Fraudsters sentenced for operating ‘large-scale’ marriage ruse to get green cards for 600 migrants
Four Fraudsters caught operating a large-scale marriage fraud “agency” — setting up sham marriages to help over 600 migrants bypass immigration laws and obtain green cards — were senten…
nypost.com
Fraudsters sentenced for operating ‘large-scale’ marriage ruse to get green cards for 600 migrants
By
Social Links for Isabel Keane
Published March 13, 2024
Updated March 13, 2024, 10:58 a.m. ET
Four fraudsters caught operating a large-scale marriage fraud “agency” — setting up sham marriages to help over 600 migrants bypass immigration laws and obtain green cards — were sentenced this week for the scam in federal court in Boston.
The group of scammers, all Philippine nationals living in Los Angeles, were charged with marriage fraud and immigration document fraud for recruiting American citizens to marry the agency’s clients, staging “hundreds of sham marriages” in exchange for cash, federal prosecutors in Massachusetts said.
Authorities said that Marcialito Biol Benitez, 50, ran the so-called “agency” out of brick-and-mortar offices in Los Angeles and would rely on his co-conspirators to recruit Americans to wed the agency’s clients.
3 The group of scammers were charged with marriage fraud and immigration document fraud. U.S. Department of Justice
The agency would then stage fake wedding ceremonies with hired online officiants — and took “photos of undocumented clients and citizen spouses in front of prop wedding decorations for later submission with immigration petitions,” the attorney’s office said.
Benitez and his co-conspirators would also help the phony couples prepare to pass interviews with immigration authorities and “advised clients about creating and maintaining the appearance of legitimate marriage to their spouses,” the attorney’s office said.
The scam marriages and adjustment of clients’ immigration status would cost between $20,000 and $35,000 in cash.