2 sentenced in separate marriage fraud cases in Chicago

CHICAGO — Two Chicago-area defendants were sentenced in separate cases in federal court Tuesday for arranging sham marriages between foreign nationals and recruited U.S. citizens to evade U.S. immigration laws and enable the foreign nationals to fraudulently obtain green cards.

These sentences resulted from separate investigations conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and its partner agencies on the Chicago Document & Benefit Fraud Task Force, which includes U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service's Fraud Detection and National Security Unit.

Teresita Zarrabian, 62, a naturalized U.S. citizen from the Philippines residing in Des Plaines, Illinois, was sentenced to 36 months in federal prison to be followed by one year of supervised release. She was also sentenced to 80 hours of community service and must pay a court-imposed fine of $4,400. Zarrabian owns Zarrabian and Associates, an immigration consulting business located in Arlington Heights, Illinois. She pleaded guilty March 5 to conspiring to commit marriage fraud.

In her plea agreement, Zarrabian admitted to arranging at least 33 fraudulent marriages between 2005 and 2012, with the assistance of her co-conspirator Michael Smith and others. Zarrabian’s clients — mostly Filipino nationals — paid her between $8,000 and $17,000 in exchange for fraudulent marriages to U.S. citizens recruited by Zarrabian, Smith and others. The recruited U.S. citizens were paid about $5,000 each for fraudulently marrying foreign nationals. Smith was sentenced Nov. 12, 2014 to 12 months and one day in prison for conspiring to commit marriage fraud.

In a separate case, Olumuyiwa “Mike” Adeniyi, 39, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Nigeria residing in Streamwood, Illinois, was sentenced to three months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release. He pleaded guilty March 20 for aiding and abetting visa fraud for petitions filed in conjunction with a sham marriage.

According to court documents, between August 2009 and November 2010, Adeniyi facilitated at least four sham marriages between U.S. citizens and Nigerian nationals. The investigation revealed that the U.S. citizens were paid between $1,000 and $3,000 in exchange for fraudulently marrying Nigerian nationals.

“Marriage fraud undermines our nation’s legitimate immigration system and creates a security vulnerability,” said James Gibbons, acting special agent in charge of HSI Chicago. “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.”

Foreign nationals who marry U.S. citizens legitimately may lawfully become U.S. permanent residents, but not if the marriage is a sham to evade immigration laws.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lela Johnson prosecuted the case against Zarrabian; Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Minnie D. Yuen prosecuted the case against Adeniyi.