Marrying a person so that they can remain in the United States is not only a federal crime, it’s also an extremely complicated scam to pull off. Someone attempting this probably wouldn’t want to test their chances, by committing, say, additional frauds. (No happy romantic ending to this tale.) For example, let’s consider the case of one New York woman who entered into a fraudulent marriage with a Gambian man and filed related immigration documents with federal officials, but then submitted numerous welfare applications that portrayed her to be a single mother.
A news release published by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of New York, details how the woman married the Gambian man in exchange for $10,000. The man had initially entered the U.S. legally, using a student visa, but remained in the country after the visa expired. He was living in the U.S. illegally when he married the woman, who herself was from Congo and later became a naturalized U.S. citizen. After they were married, she applied for government-sponsored welfare benefits for food stamps, Section 8 housing and day careunder the guise that she was an impoverished, single mother. (Guess what? Government agencies are getting better at sharing information!)
Apparently, the Gambian man was just as willing to test his own luck, as the press release details how he was also convicted for conspiring to commit almost $2 million in federal food stamp fraud. For that, he was sentenced to 18 months in prison. (Bet he doesn’t get his $10,000 back either.) The woman was convicted by a jury and sentenced to 14 months in prison, followed by three years of probation, and ordered to pay a $100 special assessment.
Source: Today’s ”Fraud of the Day” is based on, ”Utica Woman To Serve Prison Term in Marriage Fraud Case,” a news release published by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of New York on April 29, 2016.
Zubeda Kalume, 42, of Utica was sentenced to serve 14 months imprisonment and a 3 year term of supervised release, and to pay a $100 special assessment, following her conviction entering into a fraudulent marriage, allowing a Gambian man to unlawfully remain in the United States.
While fraudulently holding herself out to federal immigration officials as married, she was representing to other agencies that she was a single mother in her applications for food stamp, Section 8 housing, and day care benefits.
Kalume and Alieu Jaiteh, 32, were married in Dewitt, New York in October 2009. Jaiteh, who had entered the country on a student visa, violated its terms and was in the United States illegally at the time of the marriage.
