Call off the honeymoon — the marriage’s a fraud.
Marcialito “Mars” Biol Benitez, 49, a Philippine nationwide dwelling in Los Angeles, pleaded responsible Wednesday in federal court docket in Boston to conspiracy to commit marriage fraud and immigration doc fraud. The prices include a sentence of as much as 5 years in jail, three years of supervised launch and a fantastic of as much as $250,000.
The feds say he operated a sham wedding ceremony company in California that married off immigrants — together with at the very least three Massachusetts residents — to U.S. residents, usually homeless ladies, for cost.
Benitez operated what then-U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins known as, at an April 2022 press convention asserting the indictment of Benitez and 10 others, a “one stop shop” for immigration fraud. Benitez is the seventh particular person indicted within the fraud to plead responsible.
The feds say {that a} overseas shopper would pay between $20,000 to $30,000 for the service, which they noticed as a fast path to everlasting residency and doable future citizenship.
A big a part of the cash — which Rollins estimated at $8 million at minimal over the course of the fraud — would go to the “citizen spouses,” who have been tasked with maintaining the picture of marital bliss by means of the inexperienced card course of, in addition to to co-conspirators who recruited the purchasers, authorities mentioned.
The betrothed could be pictured kissing underneath flower-lined wedding ceremony arches and maintain “Just Married” indicators, in accordance with images included in charging paperwork, generally the day after they met.
But that wasn’t all, prosecutors say, as there was a contingency in place in case any of the “citizen spouses” had second ideas in regards to the operation: Benitez and the others used a loophole within the Violence Against Women Act by claiming the residents had abused the shopper spouses and would apply for restraining orders primarily based on home violence allegations. The conspirators would then benefit from VAWA provisions that permit the “abused” partner everlasting resident standing with out the citizen partner’s involvement.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”