A Federal Way woman was sentenced this morning to 33 months in federal prison for setting up several "sham marriages" to help herself and others immigrate to the U.S. from Cambodia.
August 31, 2009
By Ian Ith
Seattle Times staff reporter
A Federal Way woman was sentenced this morning to 33 months in federal prison for setting up several "sham marriages" to help herself and others immigrate to the U.S. from Cambodia.
A jury in U.S. District Court in January found Vuthy Sim, 35, guilty of several charges of visa fraud, money laundering and concealing an illegal alien.
According to court documents, Sim made more than $160,000 by charging Cambodian immigrants a large fee to set up the marriages with American citizens. She would then pay the citizens about $20,000 each to travel to Cambodia, participate in wedding ceremonies with the immigrant, and then pose as their spouses when they arrived in the U.S. The immigrants would then be able to get visas to stay in the U.S. and work.
Several others who participated in the scheme were also prosecuted, but Sim was identified as the mastermind.
No comments:
Post a Comment