Russian guilty of marriage fraud
A Russian woman who paid a man to get a green card and remain in America was convicted of marriage fraud Tuesday.
Yuliya Mikhailovna Kalinina, 25, was also found guilty of one count of aiding and abetting after a one-day bench trial presided over by U.S. District Judge John Walter. She now faces up to five years in federal prison.
Last month, Benjamin Claude Adams, 30, pleaded guilty to two federal felony charges of marriage fraud and making a false statement. Prosecutors say Adams, an American, responded to Kalinina’s online ad offering prospective husbands up to $15,000 to marry her.
They were married the next month by Kalinina’s live-in boyfriend, an ordained minister of a Web-based church, prosecutors said. Kalinina told the court she didn’t know “green card marriages” were illegal.
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