In the United States, 33 married couples have been arrested on charges of creating sham marriages. According to federal authorities, arrests took place in eight states, including New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Georgia, and California. US Navy servicemen and immigrant women from Eastern Europe, primarily from Russia and Ukraine, are accused of fraud. According to the criminal case materials, the women, who came to the US on student or work visas, met sailors serving at the Norfolk Naval Base in bars and restaurants in Virginia Beach. The servicemen were offered to enter into a sham marriage, which allowed the immigrants to stay in the country and obtain residency. The sailors, in turn, could demand additional housing allowances from the US Navy for married service members. As a result of the sham marriages, the US budget lost about $500,000.
As CNN notes, in some cases the marriage was concluded literally a few hours after the couple met. 'We do not yet know exactly whether the meetings and subsequent marriages of the sailors with the immigrant women were planned in advance, or whether they were chance encounters followed by a verbal agreement on the possibility of a mutually beneficial marriage,' said Jim Sirvera, a representative of the Virginia Beach Police Department. Nevertheless, American prosecutors are confident that several dozen family unions that rapidly emerged in the city's entertainment venues cannot be a mere coincidence.
However, some defendants disagree with law enforcement. One of the immigrants, arrested in New York State, was caught in an apartment with her lover (presumably not her husband), but even in handcuffs at the police station, she denied the charges against her. 'It was not a sham marriage!' the unnamed woman insisted.
It is currently known that five of the accused sailors served on the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima. Two others served on a similar ship, the USS Wasp. The place of service of the other US Navy servicemen arrested in the past few days on fraud charges is still unknown. As CNN reported citing representatives of the military department, all defendants on active duty were immediately suspended from their duties. 'Other servicemen have already been assigned to their positions,' a source for the channel explained.
Official US Navy representatives assured CNN that sailors entering into sham marriages are the exception rather than the rule in the American fleet. 'Our servicemen, we hope, act according to high ethical standards and live with an understanding of all the responsibility placed on them,' the CNN interlocutor added. However, as the channel notes, law enforcement agencies do not rule out that similar schemes with sham marriages were also carried out at other US Navy bases.
Semyon Stolyarov.
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