Des Plaines woman gets 3 years in prison for arranging sham marriages
A Des Plaines woman was sentenced Tuesday to three years in federal prison for arranging at least 33 fraudulent marriages that allowed foreign nationals to unlawfully obtain green cards, authorities said Wednesday.
Teresita Zarrabian, 62, arranged the sham nuptials between 2005 and 2012, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. At the time, she owned and operated the Arlington Heights-based immigration consulting firm Zarrabian and Associates.
Her clients, most of them Filipino nationals, paid Zarrabian between $8,000 and $17,000 in exchange for phony marriages to U.S. citizens recruited by Zarrabian, co-conspirator Michael Smith and others, federal authorities said.
The recruited U.S. citizens were paid about $5,000 each for fraudulently marrying foreign nationals, according to ICE.
Zarrabian pleaded guilty March 5 to conspiring to commit marriage fraud. In addition to the prison time, she was sentenced to 80 hours of community service and must pay a $4,400 fine.
Smith, 43, of Bellwood, was sentenced Nov. 12 to 12 months and one day in prison for conspiring to commit marriage fraud, authorities said.
In a separate case, Olumuyiwa "Mike" Adeniyi, 39, of Streamwood, was sentenced to three months in prison Tuesday, after pleading guilty March 20 for aiding and abetting visa fraud in conjunction with a sham marriage.
According to court documents, between August 2009 and November 2010, Adeniyi facilitated at least four phony marriages between U.S. citizens and Nigerian nationals, federal authorities said. An investigation revealed that the U.S. citizens were paid between $1,000 and $3,000 in exchange for fraudulently marrying Nigerian nationals, according to ICE.
"Marriage fraud undermines our nation's legitimate immigration system and creates a security vulnerability," James Gibbons, acting special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Chicago, said in a news release. "Anyone who engages in marriage fraud is taking an illegal shortcut to U.S. citizenship. HSI will continue to aggressively investigate this type of criminal activity."