The federal court has slapped a 12-month and one day imprisonment against Qiong Lu Pua, a woman who was convicted for orchestrating two sham marriages so that her brother and friend could obtain green cards. <\/p>\n
At a sentencing hearing on Friday, U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Aamona V. Manglona said after completing the prison term, Pua shall serve three years of supervised release.<\/p>\n
Manglona ordered Pua to pay a $4,000 fine and $100 in special assessment fee immediately after sentencing, and perform 50 hours of community service.<\/p>\n
After her release from jail, Pua shall also be delivered to Immigration for removal proceedings, among other conditions.<\/p>\n
Pua, a Chinese citizen, is a legal permanent resident of the United States.<\/p>\n
Manglona ordered Pua to contact the U.S. Marshal\u2019s Office in Guam every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday by telephone to determine the date for her to self-surrender.<\/p>\n
Assistant U.S. attorney Russell Lorfing, counsel for the U.S. government, and U.S. probation officer Margarita Wonenberg both recommended a sentence of 18 months imprisonment and a $4,000 fine.<\/p>\n
Attorney Benjamin Petersburg, counsel for Pua, recommended no jail time and that she serve a term of three years probation.<\/p>\n
Manglona asked Pua if she had anything to say before sentence is pronounced, but attorney Mark Hanson, co-counsel of Petersburg, stated that their client, for purposes of appeal, was advised not to make any statements at this time.<\/p>\n
Due to Pua\u2019s minor child, the prosecution agreed to have the defendant remain at liberty pending the designation of a prison facility.<\/p>\n
Last July 31, a federal jury found Pua guilty of the charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States.<\/p>\n
In 2005, Pua obtained a legal permanent resident status after marrying Juan Pua, a U.S. citizen. After the indictment was filed, she was arrested in Guam, where she is staying.<\/p>\n
Pua\u2019s co-defendants Norma F. Nekaifes and Benigno Mettao both pleaded guilty. Nekaifes and Mettao were sentenced to three years of probation. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The federal court has slapped a 12-month and one day imprisonment against Qiong Lu Pua,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[6305,51,9468,57],"class_list":["post-219975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-benigno-mettao","tag-guam","tag-juan-pua","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219975\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}