The Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) were instrumental in the crushing of a Nigerian Marriage Scam ring.
With the help of the USCIS, a jury found Letrishia Andrews, 38, Justice Daniel, 42, and Folarin H. Alabi, 35, guilty on multiple counts of conspiracy to commit marriage fraud, aiding/abetting marriage fraud, marriage fraud, theft of government funds and false statements which led to their incarceration.
The leader of the group, Alabi was sentenced to 18 months in prison while Andrews will serve 24 months in prison immediately followed by three years of supervised release. She was also ordered to pay restitution of $5,629.00 to the Department of Agriculture. Alabi and Daniel who are not U.S. citizens are expected to face deportation proceedings following their release.
According to the director of the USCIS Houston Field Office, Mark Siegl, “This investigation, and subsequent sentencing, shows how seriously USCIS takes immigration fraud,
“We will continue to work tirelessly with our law enforcement partners to uphold the integrity of our law enforcement system and investigate any leads connected to immigration fraud.”
The fraud was quite a simple one; Alabi and his cohorts would pay U.S. citizens for entering into fraudulent marriages to Nigerian nationals who had originally entered the country on tourist visas. The conspirators would then complete immigration documents and falsely submit them to USCIS to obtain legal permanent resident status. As part of the conspiracy, the defendants would take staged photographs of themselves as a couple for documentation of an allegedly meaningful relationship. The conspirators also coached the recruits and/or the Nigerian nationals on what to say when questioned or interviewed by law enforcement or immigration officials about the legitimate nature of the marriages.
This information was revealed by the USCIS Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate (FDNS) officers and an Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agent during trial.