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Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.ice.gov/pi/news/newsreleases/articles/071129losangeles.htm
November 29, 2007
U.S. man and his Russian “wife” arrested for marriage fraud after she paid him with automobile for sham union
Russian woman advertised for ‘spouse’ on Craiglist.com
LOS ANGELES - A West Los Angeles man and the Russian national he wed last year were arrested today by federal immigration officials after being charged with marriage fraud for allegedly entering into a sham marriage so the woman could obtain documents allowing her to remain in the United States.
Benjamin C. Adams, 30, a U.S. citizen, and Yuliya M. Kalinina, 25, of Marina Del Rey, were arrested at their respective residences this morning by special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
According to the criminal complaint charging the pair, Kalinina posted eight advertisements on Craigslist.com in late 2005 and early 2006. In her advertisements, Kalinina said she sought to marry a United States citizen for the purpose of obtaining permanent resident status. Kalinina offered her would-be spouse as much as $15,000, stating: “Green Card Marriage - Will pay $300/month Total $15,000” and “This is strictly platonic business offer, sex not involved. NOT required to live together.”
In January 2006, Adams responded to Kalinina’s advertisements on Craigslist and agreed to enter into the scheme with Kalinina. Approximately one month after their first email exchange, Kalinina and Adams were married. Kalinina’s live-in boyfriend, Dmitri Chavkerov, an Internet-ordained minister, wed the two defendants. Kalinina later leased a new Ford Mustang for Adams.
“For years, people have sought to use sham marriages to illegally gain immigration benefits, but this is the first case we’ve uncovered where the alleged perpetrators used the Internet to orchestrate the scheme,” said Robert Schoch, special agent in charge for the ICE office of investigations in Los Angeles. “Marriage fraud and other types of immigration benefit fraud pose a serious threat to our national security and the integrity of our nation’s legal immigration system. As these arrests demonstrate, cyberspace offers no protection for those attempting to evade our laws.”
Kalinina and Adams are scheduled to make initial appearances this afternoon in United States District Court in Los Angeles.
The charge of marriage fraud carries a statutory maximum penalty of five years in federal prison. This case is the product of an investigation by ICE and U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS). An official at USCIS received the original tip that led to the investigation. An officer with the USCIS Fraud Detection and National Security program worked closely with ICE, starting in February 2006, on the investigation.
— ICE —
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JIHAD WATCH.org (NY DAILY NEWS.com): "BUSTED ILLEGAL ALIEN WAS GREAT SPY, SAY SOURCES" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "She was so good that some in the agency want to hire Prouty back one day, the source said. Officials again yesterday insisted Prouty is not suspected of espionage or of being a mole for the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah. "There is no indication at this point that she was engaged in espionage" for Hezbollah while at the CIA, said a senior U.S. official familiar with the case. In fact, the CIA fears she'll be assassinated for her U.S. spy work if she's ever deported to Beirut, two sources said. Other knowledgeable sources are convinced otherwise. Her brother-in-law is a fugitive Hezbollah fund-raiser who helped her lie to win U.S. citizenship seven years before she joined the FBI in 1999.") (November 17, 2007)
US DOJ.gov/opa - Press Release: Detroit: "FORMER EMPLOYEE OF CIA AND FBI PLEADS GUILTY TO CONSPIRACY, UNAUTHORIZED COMPUTER ACCESS AND NATURALIZATION FRAUD" (PRESS RELEASE SNIPPET: "Nada Nadim Prouty, a 37-year-old Lebanese national and resident of Vienna, Va., pleaded guilty today in the Eastern District of Michigan to charges of fraudulently obtaining U.S. citizenship, which she later used to gain employment at the FBI and CIA; accessing a federal computer system to unlawfully query information about her relatives and the terrorist organization Hizballah; and conspiracy to defraud the United States.") (November 13, 2007)