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Twenty more people  16 Upstate women and four Pakistani
men --
pleaded guilty Thursday to marriage fraud, admitting to entering sham
marriages where women received money to wed illegal aliens seeking
green cards.
It was the third wave of guilty pleas stemming from an investigation
dubbed
Operation Broken Vows.
The federal investigation led to charges against 221 people  including
partners in 107 marriages and seven people charged with conspiring to
arrange the marriages, said Kevin McDonald, the assistant U.S. attorney
who
prosecuted the cases. More pleas are expected Monday in Spartanburg.
One Greenville woman, 15 Spartanburg women and the four men, flanked by
their attorneys, stood shoulder to shoulder before U.S. District Judge
G.
Ross Anderson during the hearing at the federal courthouse in Anderson.
The women admitted to accepting between $1,000 and $1,500 to marry men
from
Pakistan and Tunisia, except for one woman who said she was taken on a
shopping spree and bought about $500 worth of baby clothes rather than
accepting money, McDonald said.
None of the marriages were consummated, and the couples didn't live
together, the women said as they were questioned one by one.
The men came from around the nation and returned to their homes and
jobs
elsewhere after weddings were performed in probate courts in
Greenville,
Spartanburg and Cherokee counties, McDonald said.
The charge of marriage fraud is a felony and carries a maximum penalty
of
five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, lawyers said.
The women, except for two facing unrelated charges, were released on
bond
and ordered to return to court for sentencing later.
McDonald said the sentences probably will range between four and 30
months
under federal guidelines and that some of the women may be eligible for
probation.
Anderson ordered that the four Pakistani men -- from New York, New
Jersey,
Pennsylvania and Virginia -- be deported immediately.
Authorities are looking for about 75 more people, mostly men, indicted
in
Operation Broken Vows and considered to be fugitives.
Most of the weddings took place before Sept. 11, 2001, McDonald said.
Jimmy Brehm, a Greenville attorney, said the women married for money,
"not
to endanger anyone."
The federal Immigration and Naturalization Service doesn't recognize
the
marriages, but they are binding in South Carolina, lawyers said. The
women
would need to file for annulments or divorces to end the marriages,
lawyers
said.
After the hearing, Anderson said that he has never seen a case of this
sort
in his 22 years on the bench.
The roundup, which McDonald said is the largest he knows of in the
nation,
resulted from a tip. He said he knew of no particular reason that South
Carolina became the destination for the men involved.
"Word permeated through this group that they could come to South
Carolina
and try to achieve this permanent resident status," McDonald said.
The group of women included fast-food and service industry workers,
single
mothers and some students, McDonald said.
"A thousand bucks to them is as big as the side of that wall, but
you've
got to enforce the law," Anderson said. "All of them said they were
aware
of what they were doing. We've got a complete and blatant violation of
the
immigration law."
At the time of the initial arrests in October, about 40 of the women
charged were allowed to plead before U.S. Magistrate William Cato to a
lesser charge of aiding and abetting an alien. They were sentenced to
six
months' probation and 75 hours of community service for the
misdemeanor.
Last month, 13 women and three men pleaded guilty to marriage fraud in
federal court in Greenville. The women await sentencing and the men
were
ordered deported.
The women who pleaded guilty to marriage fraud in Anderson on Thursday
were
Terri Amanda Boyd, 22; Sheron Denise Byrd, 33; Latrenda Roxsand
Dawkins,
22; Michael Alicia Foster, 25; Katoshia Gray, 25; Shawnetta Denise
Henderson, 31; Sonya Evette Hoey, 29; Timmia Holcomb, 37; Christina
Lash
Hull, 22; India Yikeesha Jackson, 23, Giuynita Ann Jeter, 23; Nakima
Littlejohn, 24; Stephanie Mack, 40; Precious Latrice Martin, 23; and
Tonya
Denise Miller, 31, all of Spartanburg, and Koniskis Jones, 23, of
Greenville.
The men who pleaded guilty Thursday to marriage fraud in Anderson were
Karim Ullah, 48, who was arrested in Brooklyn, N.Y.; Pirdad Khan, 49,
who
was arrested in Newark, N.J.; Mohiudin Syed, 50, who was arrested in
Philadelphia; and Amjid Hussain, 32, who was arrested in Arlington, Va.
men --
pleaded guilty Thursday to marriage fraud, admitting to entering sham
marriages where women received money to wed illegal aliens seeking
green cards.
It was the third wave of guilty pleas stemming from an investigation
dubbed
Operation Broken Vows.
The federal investigation led to charges against 221 people  including
partners in 107 marriages and seven people charged with conspiring to
arrange the marriages, said Kevin McDonald, the assistant U.S. attorney
who
prosecuted the cases. More pleas are expected Monday in Spartanburg.
One Greenville woman, 15 Spartanburg women and the four men, flanked by
their attorneys, stood shoulder to shoulder before U.S. District Judge
G.
Ross Anderson during the hearing at the federal courthouse in Anderson.
The women admitted to accepting between $1,000 and $1,500 to marry men
from
Pakistan and Tunisia, except for one woman who said she was taken on a
shopping spree and bought about $500 worth of baby clothes rather than
accepting money, McDonald said.
None of the marriages were consummated, and the couples didn't live
together, the women said as they were questioned one by one.
The men came from around the nation and returned to their homes and
jobs
elsewhere after weddings were performed in probate courts in
Greenville,
Spartanburg and Cherokee counties, McDonald said.
The charge of marriage fraud is a felony and carries a maximum penalty
of
five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, lawyers said.
The women, except for two facing unrelated charges, were released on
bond
and ordered to return to court for sentencing later.
McDonald said the sentences probably will range between four and 30
months
under federal guidelines and that some of the women may be eligible for
probation.
Anderson ordered that the four Pakistani men -- from New York, New
Jersey,
Pennsylvania and Virginia -- be deported immediately.
Authorities are looking for about 75 more people, mostly men, indicted
in
Operation Broken Vows and considered to be fugitives.
Most of the weddings took place before Sept. 11, 2001, McDonald said.
Jimmy Brehm, a Greenville attorney, said the women married for money,
"not
to endanger anyone."
The federal Immigration and Naturalization Service doesn't recognize
the
marriages, but they are binding in South Carolina, lawyers said. The
women
would need to file for annulments or divorces to end the marriages,
lawyers
said.
After the hearing, Anderson said that he has never seen a case of this
sort
in his 22 years on the bench.
The roundup, which McDonald said is the largest he knows of in the
nation,
resulted from a tip. He said he knew of no particular reason that South
Carolina became the destination for the men involved.
"Word permeated through this group that they could come to South
Carolina
and try to achieve this permanent resident status," McDonald said.
The group of women included fast-food and service industry workers,
single
mothers and some students, McDonald said.
"A thousand bucks to them is as big as the side of that wall, but
you've
got to enforce the law," Anderson said. "All of them said they were
aware
of what they were doing. We've got a complete and blatant violation of
the
immigration law."
At the time of the initial arrests in October, about 40 of the women
charged were allowed to plead before U.S. Magistrate William Cato to a
lesser charge of aiding and abetting an alien. They were sentenced to
six
months' probation and 75 hours of community service for the
misdemeanor.
Last month, 13 women and three men pleaded guilty to marriage fraud in
federal court in Greenville. The women await sentencing and the men
were
ordered deported.
The women who pleaded guilty to marriage fraud in Anderson on Thursday
were
Terri Amanda Boyd, 22; Sheron Denise Byrd, 33; Latrenda Roxsand
Dawkins,
22; Michael Alicia Foster, 25; Katoshia Gray, 25; Shawnetta Denise
Henderson, 31; Sonya Evette Hoey, 29; Timmia Holcomb, 37; Christina
Lash
Hull, 22; India Yikeesha Jackson, 23, Giuynita Ann Jeter, 23; Nakima
Littlejohn, 24; Stephanie Mack, 40; Precious Latrice Martin, 23; and
Tonya
Denise Miller, 31, all of Spartanburg, and Koniskis Jones, 23, of
Greenville.
The men who pleaded guilty Thursday to marriage fraud in Anderson were
Karim Ullah, 48, who was arrested in Brooklyn, N.Y.; Pirdad Khan, 49,
who
was arrested in Newark, N.J.; Mohiudin Syed, 50, who was arrested in
Philadelphia; and Amjid Hussain, 32, who was arrested in Arlington, Va.
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