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Woman in marriage fraud pleads guilty
Norma Nekaifes, one of four persons indicted in federal court for allegedly conspiring in a fraudulent marriage solely in order for two of them to obtain green cards, entered a guilty plea yesterday.
Nekaifes, 29, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
The offense carries a maximum penalty of a five-year imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.
As part of the plea deal, the U.S. government agreed to move to dismiss the remaining count of marriage fraud against Nekaifes upon sentencing.
U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona accepted the defendant’s guilty plea and set the sentencing for Nov. 20, 2015 at 10am.
Attorney Colin Thompson is court-appointed counsel for Nekaifes. Assistant U.S. attorney Russell Lorfing appeared for the U.S. government.
The other defendants in the case are Qiong Lu Pua, Zhengqing Lu, and Baoqin Ding.
According to the factual basis of the plea agreement, from June 2010 through July 2011 on Saipan, Nekaifes, Pua, and Benigno Mettao, and others agreed to deceive the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services by arranging into fraudulent marriages for the purpose of defrauding USCIS.
The object of the conspiracy was to get USCIS to believe that Nekaifes and Mettao had entered into legitimate marriages, so that their foreign national spouses could receive immigration benefits.
To further the deception that Mettao was legitimately married to Ding, Nekaifes, and Pua took staged photographs of Mettao and Ding at various places around Saipan on Dec. 9, 2010.
On Dec. 9, 2010, Nekaifes attended the marriage of Mettao and Ding and signed the marriage certificate as a witness to the ceremony. At the time of the ceremony, Nekaifes and Mettao actually held themselves out as being common-law married to one another.
On May 16, 2011, Nekaifes married Lu for the purpose of deceiving USCIS.
On July 18, 2011, Nekaifes submitted a Form I-130 wherein she petitioned USCIS to award immigration benefits to Lu.
Last March 17, federal agents arrested Mettao after he was charged with one count of false statement in connection with his alleged fraudulent marriage with Ding.
