What happened to Maine? First we learned it is attracting hordes of Somali welfare moochers, then phony asylum-seeker schemers and now marriage fraudsters.
The word must be all over Africa—get to Maine!
Busted! The Bangor Daily News reports that it is (was) one of the most sophisticated marriage fraud rings in the country. And, on top of the marriage fraud, the cheats have gone one step further and claimed fake spousal abuse to assure they get to stay in the good ol’ USA (land of suckers!).
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Bangor Daily News (Hat tip: crime sleuth ‘pungentpeppers’):
BANGOR, Maine — One of the country’s most sophisticated marriage fraud schemes officially ended Tuesday when a federal judge sentenced the last defendant to a year in prison.
Margaret Kimani, 30, of Worcester, Mass., was one of 28 defendants convicted in Maine of being part of a scam that paid American citizens living in Maine to wed African immigrants so they could more easily obtain permanent residency status, known as a green card, and achieve citizenship more easily, Maine’s U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II said at a press conference after the sentencing.
“America’s legal immigration system is not for sale and we will move aggressively against those who willfully compromise the integrity of that system simply to enrich themselves,” said Bruce Foucart, special agent in charge for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations in Boston, whose office headed the investigation that led to the prosecutions.
“HSI’s message is very simple,” he said at the press conference. “U.S. citizenship is not for sale and there are consequences for those who commit marriage fraud. If you commit marriage fraud, there isn’t going to be a honeymoon.”
The investigation was launched in 2005 and identified more than 40 sham marriages in the Lewiston/Auburn and Newport areas between U.S. citizens in Maine and nationals from Kenya, Uganda, Zambia and Cameroon. Prosecutions began in 2010.
There is more. Read the rest of the tortured tale.
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