Saipan Tribune

Monday, May 20, 2013

Monday, October 08, 2012

2 indicted for alleged marriage fraud

A federal grand jury has indicted two persons for allegedly getting married so that the nonresident woman could avail of immigration benefits.

The indictment charged Abdon Romolor Teregeyo and Zhongwei Yang with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States.

In addition, Teregeyo was charged with one count of false statement on an immigration document and one count of false statement to a government agent.

Yang was also charged with one count of false statement on an immigration document and three counts of false statement to a government agent.

According to the indictment, Teregeyo and Yang conspired to get married and persuade USCIS officials that they were living together in a legitimate marriage, when in fact they were not and did not.

Teregeyo and Yang were married on Aug. 21, 2007.

On Dec. 17, 2009, Yang applied for permanent residence status, in which she stated that she lived at Ahu, Koblerville from May 2005 until that day, when in truth she had lived in Garapan since 2007.

That same day, Dec. 17, 2009, Teregeyo petitioned Yang as an alien relative, saying that he and his wife had “lived together” at Ahu, Koblerville from August 2007 until that day. Teregeyo knew that this statement was false since he and his wife had not lived together since 2007, according to the indictment.

Both Teregeyo and Yang allegedly made the same false claims in interviews with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service. In the same interview, Yang allegedly lied that she had consummated her marriage and that she was “still together with her husband.”