The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the arrest of four Philippine nationals who were said to have run a "large-scale" "marriage scam" where they conduct fraudulent weddings in exchange for green cards.
The four individuals have been charged in Massachusetts for marketing the marriage fraud agency to illegal migrants. The U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Massachusetts' press release said that four Philippine nationals in Los Angeles were taken into custody for marriage fraud and immigration document fraud.
Large-Scale Marriage Scam
Authorities also noted that the suspects created "hundreds of sham marriages" between illegal migrants. They added that 50-year-old Marcialito Biol Benitez was the one who operated the agency in a brick-and-mortar office located in Los Angeles and ran it between October 2016 and March 2022.
The attorney's office also said that the primary suspect's scam weddings and efforts to adjust his clients' immigration status cost anywhere between $20,000 and $35,000 in cash, according to Fox News.
Benitez, who is a Philippine citizen who goes by the name, "Mars," has been sentenced to 22 months in federal prison. Foreign nationals who needed to get U.S. green cards in order to live and work in the country were the suspect's main customers. The marriage scams were handled by a crew of recruiters and facilitators.
In the event that the American spouse disappeared or backed out of the marriage, Benitez and his team submitted an application, complete with restraining order documentation, for a green card issued under the Violence Against Women Act. This includes a special carve-out for victims of domestic abuse that does not require the involvement of the spouse.
In a detention memo filed in the case, one of the customers messaged Benitez in 2021, saying, "Devon, find me a girl, like matches to 53 male guy." It added that they wanted to meet at 5:30 p.m. and that the marriage would happen in the morning the next day.
Prosecutors said that the money that the suspect made from his illicit wedding operations was good. Benitez apparently threw himself a $100,000 birthday party that same year at the Los Angeles Hilton and paid the entirety of the bill in cash, said Yahoo News.
Philippine Nationals Arrested
After the lead scammer paired an undocumented client with a citizen "spouse," he and his co-conspirators would then stage a fake wedding ceremony for the two individuals. They would hire officiants online to officiate the marriages.
Many of the newlyweds were then given photographs of themselves and their new husbands and wives in front of "prop decorations." After the ceremonies, Benitez's agency would coach the couples on passing themselves off during green card interviews as legitimate partners.
One of Benitez's workers, Engilbert Ulan, met with a newlywed couple in 2021 and helped them prepare for questions that they could expect to face from United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. He passed the couple through the list of 211 possible questions that were provided by his boss.
These questions included; "What is the color of your spouse's toothbrush?" and "Who sleeps on the right side of the bed." Last week, Ulan was convicted by a federal jury in Boston of conspiracy to commit marriage fraud and immigration document fraud and faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, according to the Los Angeles Times.
