The US Justice Department has charged nearly a dozen people for their roles in a multimillion-dollar scheme that helped hundreds of Chinese nationals fraudulently obtain green cards through sham marriages to US citizens. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Associated Press.
According to court papers, US citizens were paid as much as $30,000 to enter into bogus marriages with immigrants seeking lawful permanent resident status as part of the scheme orchestrated from New York. The defendants charged up to $100,000 per green card, bringing in tens of millions of dollars over the course of the decade-long scheme.
Authorities say they believe the group arranged more than 1,000 sham weddings, describing it as one of the largest marriage fraud prosecutions in US history.
“This scheme was not a quick, fly-by-night operation but rather a yearslong, multibillion dollar cottage industry to criminally assist people who would not, or legally could not, otherwise become citizens of the United States,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told reporters.
The charges come against the backdrop of the Trump administration’s restrictions on both legal and illegal immigration that have sought to crack down on who is able to enter the country or become a citizen.
After recruiting US citizens, the defendants would arrange fake weddings and in some cases stage photos of families at places such as restaurants afterward to make them look legitimate. The defendants would then help the immigrants through the lawful permanent status application process.
“These schemes have real cost. They rob our country of its ability to know who should be and who should not be allowed in America,” Blanche said.
The 11 defendants, including people accused of officiating the sham weddings, are charged in an indictment filed in New York. It was not immediately clear Wednesday whether they had lawyers to speak on their behalf.