A West Los Angeles man and the Russian national who he married last year were arrested today by federal immigration officials after being charged with marriage fraud for allegedly entering into a sham marriage so the woman could obtain documents that would allow her to remain in the United States.

A Lebanese woman who became an agent for the FBI and CIA after faking her US citizenship used her position to gain access to secret files on the terrorist group Hezbollah - the latest security breach to hit America's top intelligence agencies.

Nada Nadim Prouty, 37, was hired by the FBI and CIA after vetting procedures by America's most security-sensitive agencies failed to uncover that she had obtained US citizenship illegally through a sham marriage.

A federal judge decided Friday that an Ormond Beach woman accused of arranging illegal marriages to help immigrants fraudulently get green cards should stay locked up until her trial.

One reason Natalia Humm will remain behind bars, according to testimony, was apparently her track record with federal investigators.

Federal authorities say they have uncovered another marriage fraud ring tied to the Navy.

One current and one former sailor have been indicted with two Eastern European women on charges that they arranged their marriages for mutual benefits: The sailors received larger housing allowances and the women received green cards.

A fifth suspect, Ricardo Estaban Fernandez, a sailor in his 30s stationed in Norfolk, is suspected of leading the marriage fraud ring. He is scheduled to appear in federal court today for a bond hearing.

Robert Berishaj and Lula Dedivanaj are engaged to be married, but there's a catch that's preventing them from marital bliss.

Berishaj is now on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, deported last week by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to Montenegro even though he's lived in the U.S. since he was 9. Berishaj is of Albanian descent and was born in Montenegro.

"He is my world. He means everything to me," Dedivanaj said Monday, wiping away tears. They met three months ago and she said they were set to be married Jan. 19 in St. Paul Catholic Church in Rochester, where many of Albanian heritage attend. Dedivanaj of Fenton was born in the U.S., but her ethnicity is also Albanian.

A former immigration official and his sister pleaded guilty yesterday to fraud and conspiracy charges in a million-dollar scheme to arrange sham marriages in order to obtain illegal green cards.

The former official, Phillip Browne, 41, worked until December 2005 as a district adjudication officer for the federal Citizenship and Immigration Services in Manhattan. His sister, Beverly Mozer-Browne, 50, once owned a financial and legal service business in Queens called Help Preparers Professional Services. The authorities say the business was a front for the procurement of illegal permanent-residence documents, known as green cards.

Mr. Browne and Ms. Mozer-Browne were originally charged in the scheme with nearly two dozen others in June 2006. All but one of them, Wendy Harrison, have either pleaded guilty or been convicted in the case. Ms. Harrison, the authorities said, is a fugitive.

A woman who took part in a sophisticated marriage scam that charged foreigners seeking citizenship up to $60,000 for a mate has been sentenced to more than three years in prison, authorities said Tuesday.

Tina Tran, 47, was sentenced to 37 months in prison and three years probation Monday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said. She pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy and visa fraud charges.

Tran was accused of being a key conspirator in a fraud ring targeting Chinese and Vietnamese nationals. Prosecutors said the Orange County-based ring has been linked to as many as 70 sham marriages and the filing of more than 100 bogus visa petitions.

Vladimir Danilov's wife never stepped inside his home, even after they married.

After all, the 40-year-old Danilov was living there with a girlfriend half his age.

Malkhaz Kapanadze's bride would've needed to board a plane to see him. He was living in Brooklyn with his other wife and their child. But it didn't matter to this woman, as long as her $300-per-month checks kept coming in the mail.

These Volusia County marriages - and many others, investigators say - were more like business transactions than stories of happily ever after.

They were at the heart of a federal investigation into a Central Florida couple accused of arranging marriages between U.S. citizens and immigrants who wanted the fast - and fraudulent - path to citizenship.

A Chinese man will have to sue if he wants to get back any of the $23,000 he paid to a Christchurch company director to arrange a sham marriage so that he could get New Zealand residency.

Chinese national, Jiachang Lu, received a sentence of 180 hours community work for his part in the scam and it is understood he has now been deported.

The woman involved in the scheme, Nicola Sheree Bell, was sentenced to 120 hours' community work.

But the man who arranged it, Stephen William Adams, 46, was today jailed for 16 months after admitting supplying false or misleading information to an immigration officer.

The former head of the state public defender's office in St. Louis has pleaded guilty to charges of arranging a sham marriage to keep his boyfriend in the U.S.

The Web site for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Tuesday that Eric Affholter entered the federal plea agreement Monday.

An indictment in Manhattan federal court said the five instructed their sham marriage clients and would-be spouses to open joint bank accounts, put utility bills in both their names and prepare for immigration interviews by answering mock questions.

An Atlanta woman faces up to ten years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to use a sham marriage to illegally keep an Israeli man in the United States.

Cameron Lloyd, 56, a minister, has pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to one count of conspiracy to commit visa fraud in connection with a sham marriage scheme that netted the participants more than $1 million.

Prosecutors said that Beverly Mozer-Browne owned and operated a business in Queens called Help Preparers Professional Services(HPPS) that purported to offer its customers assistance in a variety of financial and legal matters. In fact, the primary business at HPPS was fraudulently procuring permanent resident documents or "green cards," from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS), formerly known as the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), in exchange for fees ranging from $8,000 to $16,000.

This [note: sham marriages] comprises about nine per cent of Kenyan marriages. The marriage is contracted for reasons other than love and family and is orchestrated for personal gain such as immigration, wealth and social status.

This type of marriage is also known as a "sham marriage".

Rosaline wanted to migrate to the USA or Germany, but her numerous visa applications were rejected. Someone advised her that the easiest way out was to get married to a citizen of any of those two countries.

Fortunately for her she met a German and married him within a year. She has been living in Germany for the last seven years.

But money is the main reason people get into such marriages.

About 10 years ago, Ken, a 32-year-old lawyer, was on the verge of bankruptcy. His law firm was doing badly and debts were piling up. It was hard to come across new and well paying clients. He was single and dating a jobless girl who entirely depended on him. Along came Faith, a not so-good-looking woman who was head over heels in love with Ken. The icing on the cake was her family background: wealthy and influential politically.

Ken ditched his long-time girlfriend for the moneyed Faith. As soon as he declared undying love for Faith, his fortunes started changing. Clients started trickling in, and with them money. Within one year, Ken was mingling with the high and mighty, a wedding ring on his finger and Faith by his side.

According to the indictment, Starnes and others recruited the U.S. citizens and foreign nationals to enter into the sham marriages and promised to pay the U.S. citizens as compensation as follows: $1,000 on the day of the marriage; $1,000 three months after the marriage; $2,000 after the marriage interview with immigration officials; and $1,000 after the foreign born national received his or her permanent resident status. As part of the alleged conspiracy, the U.S. citizens allegedly took steps to further each other's marriage frauds, including attending each others' weddings and posing for photos, knowing the photos would be used to support the legitimacy of the marriages. Starnes also offered advice on how to make marriages appear legitimate, the indictment alleges.

If convicted, each count carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

he former head of the state public defender's office in St. Louis faces federal charges for arranging a sham marriage to keep his boyfriend in the United States, U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway said Friday.

John Reid failed yesterday in his attempt to overturn a ruling that Home Office regulations to curb sham marriages were in breach of the human right to marry.

The Tories have pledged to raise the minimum age at which non-EU nationals can come to Britain to marry, to 21.

Shadow minister Damien Green said they should also pass an English test, to cut the number of young spouses unable to integrate into British society.

Additional charges have been brought against a Kearns woman and her boyfriend, who are accused of arranging a sham marriage to keep the man in the United States.

Authorities contend the marriage of Tori Crowther and Gassan Hassan Said was not a match made in heaven.
Instead, they claim that the December wedding was a scam designed to keep the Venezuelan groom in the country - and that the arrangements were made by Said's girlfriend, Eva Daisy Aguilar, a wedding planner.

The Punjab government on Wednesday announced that an officer of the rank of an additional director general of police will probe all cases pertaining to illegal immigration and sham marriages of non-resident Indians (NRIs).

Police and immigration officers yesterday broke up a gang behind a major sham marriage scam.

Four men and a woman were arrested on suspicion of marrying off vulnerable Glasgow women, including drug addicts and prostitutes, to Africans wishing to stay in Britain. The members of the gang were seized in a series of dawn raids early yesterday in Paisley, Cambuslang, London and Reading, Berkshire.

New marriage guidelines are being drawn up by the Church of England amid fears that its clergy may be unwittingly conducting bogus weddings.

Officials have noticed a sharp rise in the number of migrants seeking church weddings since the Government imposed a crackdown on marriages of convenience at register offices.

Terrorists have also been involved in sham marriages, which are attractive because federal law allows an alien who is the spouse of a U.S. citizen to gain lawful permanent residency. However, federal law prohibits marriage fraud, which is defined as a marriage that is entered solely "for the purpose of evading any provision of the immigration laws." A number of terrorists and terror supporters affiliated with al Qaeda, Hezbollah, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad used sham marriages. For example, three members of a Hezbollah fundraising cell in Charlotte, North Carolina were involved in sham marriages. Two of the women who married conspirators were actually a lesbian couple who lived together rather than with their "husbands."

Twenty-five Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) have been convicted and sentenced to jail for arranging "marriages of convenience" of Indians with British nationals in order to let them gain entry into Britain.

The Legislature has approved a bill giving the Division of Immigration more teeth in its campaign against sham marriages.

House Bill 15-224, authored by Vice Speaker Justo S. Quitugua, passed the Senate in a 7-2 vote. It will become law once signed by the governor.

If enacted, the bill would strengthen an existing law created to deter fraudulent marriages. A person who enters into marriage for immigration purposes would no longer be guilty of just immigration fraud, but of marriage fraud. Penalties are up to five years in prison, or a fine of up to $5,000, or both.

A 65-year-old man pleaded guilty in federal court yesterday to helping set up a sham marriage to allow a Chinese man, described as his lover, to remain in the United States.

A Jordanian national accused of laundering at least $6 million via fraudulent schemes will remain behind bars because of fear he will flee the country before he can be tried.

"At this point the case is strong," said U.S. Magistrate Holly B. Fitzsimmons said of the charges facing Fares Khraisat, 37, of Judd Road, Easton and owner of Zam Zam Telecard Inc., 2690 East Main St. "He knows he's going to be deported and his wife is going to be deported. That's a powerful incentive to flee."

An Israeli man living in West Virgina and his wife, who lives in Georgia, have been indicted on a federal charge that accuses them of conspiring to use a sham marriage to illegally keep the man in the United States.

As the players began preparing to travel to the United States for spring training, they headed to the consulate with their new wives to get their work visas in order. But players told ESPN that officials became suspicious after noticing that so many minor leaguers had been married in recent days, and the same witness had been present at many of the shotgun weddings. Oriental, Paredes and numerous other minor league ballplayers were summoned back to the consulate and faced with their worst nightmare -- their visas were permanently canceled and they were banned from setting foot on American soil.

Authorities in Suriname are currently taking steps to tackle sham marriages in the country, officials have confirmed. In its weekly cabinet meeting Wednesday, the government sanctioned a bill put forward by justice minister Chandrikapersad Santokhi to curb this illegal practice.

Two illegal immigrants have been indicted on federal charges of arranging their own sham marriages, one to a former Navy man and the other to an undercover federal agent.

A former Radford High School teacher has apparently fled the country to avoid trial on charges he arranged an illegal marriage for his gay lover, according to authorities.

Bob Loren faces up to five years for allegedly arranging a sham marriage for Hang Duan, a 20-year-old man from China.

The mastermind of a bogus marriage syndicate received record-high 28-month jail sentence after appearing in the District Court today (February 8). Dai Chun-yin, 48, pleaded guilty to 12 counts of conspiracy to defraud, one count of aiding and abetting the making of a false representation to an Immigration officer and one count of perverting the course of public justice. His sentence was the biggest imposed on someone convicted in relation to bogus marriages.

Fantasist Emma Golightly was jailed for two years yesterday for plundering the bank accounts of men she met through lonely heart adverts.

Golightly created an extravagant web of deceit - posing as a rich businesswoman with homes abroad and a chauffeur-driven car, before fleecing their accounts.

The 22-year-old, of Meadowfield Gardens, Walkerville, Newcastle, even tricked two into marrying her so she would not die of cancer "unwed", Newcastle Crown Court heard.

She pretended to lavish them with cars, exotic holidays and expensive hotels, but was instead raiding their accounts.

The fugitive who admitted he masterminded a marriage scam involving sailors from Mayport Naval Station and European women said Thursday that he fled the country because he thought his deal for probation fell apart.

Federal prosecutors said they made no such deal.

Dariusz Stanley Baranski, 26, said in a phone call that he just left Detroit, where he had been living since he pleaded guilty in August. He said he is now in Poland.

National Immigration Agency (NIA) director Wu Chen-chi has climbed the ranks from beat cop, a guard at the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), to chief of security at the presidential residence and now head of immigration. Wu sat down with "Taipei Times" staff reporter Max Hirsch last week to discuss his new agency and address concerns that it has inherited a culture of corruption from its predecessor Bureau of Immigration, which fell under the Ministry of Interior

A Vancouver man, convicted of conspiracy to commit visa fraud, has been sentenced in federal court to three years' probation for his role in organizing sham marriages between Vietnam residents and U.S. citizens.

A ringleader in a massive marriage fraud scheme was sentenced to nearly 3 1/2 years in prison yesterday by a judge who criticized the man for saying he had arranged more than 100 phony marriages only to help fellow Ghanaian immigrants stay in the United States.

"That's a mansion you built," U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III said to Samuel Acquah, holding up a picture of Acquah's $775,000 house in Bowie. "You did this for greed. You didn't do it to help anyone. So get that notion out of your head."

Nelson, a Republican from Lewisville, would have Texas law require marriage license applicants to swear in writing that they aren't marrying to circumvent immigration laws and that they aren't getting paid to enter into such a charade. Lying on the application would be perjury, a third-degree felony punishable by two to 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $10,000.

A Virginia man's guilty plea Wednesday to arranging sham marriages between U.S. citizens and Ghanaian immigrants reflects the government's increased focus on marriage fraud.

Eric Amoah, 42, a pharmacy technician from Ghana, was one of 22 people charged in the Washington, D.C., area two months ago with participating in a marriage and immigration fraud scheme. His sentence is pending.

Similar busts have occurred in the past year in California, New York and Utah. An investigation is underway in Gwinnett County, Ga., where two men are charged with bigamy for marrying at least 13 African women.

"We're definitely seeing more organizations" involved in marriage fraud, says James Spero, head of the Identity and Benefits Fraud Unit at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). "We're stepping up our efforts."

Foreign women are increasingly willing to pay Singaporean men to engage in sham marriages, police data said on Wednesday.

Most of the cases reported over the last year involved Chinese nationals.

Authorities arrested 19 people - mostly Ghanaians - Thursday after uncovering a scheme that arranged as many as 1,000 phony marriages in northern Virginia between U.S. citizens seeking cash and illegal immigrants seeking green cards.

The U.S. Embassy says its officials are working with Ghana Police CID document fraud unit to fight widespread fraud by applicants for the U.S. visa lottery (called the Diversity Visa or DV) and to protect honest applicants from extortion.

Of particular concern this year is the growing number of fraudulent marriages arranged for immigration purposes only. Officials detected fraud in a high percentage of applications where spouses were added after the date of the original DV entry. The Embassy says it feels obliged to investigate every case. Given the very large number of short-term marriages awaiting investigation, and that the DV year ends at the end of September, not all investigations may be completed before the end of the program year.

A Honolulu woman accused of accepting six-thousand dollars to enter into a sham marriage to get a Chinese national into the U-S pleaded guilty today in federal court.

U.S. citizens were recruited and paid between $5,000 and $6,000 to enter into sham marriages with Chinese aliens as part of a conspiracy to smuggle them into the United States, federal prosecutors said.

What he heard as he said his marriage vows was not wedding bells, but the dry rustle of money changing hands.

The 54-year-old ex-taxi driver had been promised more than $9,000 for marrying a young China woman, Yan Shuli, so that she could extend her stay here.

After the solemnisation, the 24-year-old wife paid her new husband $2,000 in the first of several transactions.

But four months later, after a dispute over money, the Singaporean blew the whistle on his own sham marriage.

With her silky-smooth complexion, long black hair and slim figure, Qili (not her real name) could have any man she wanted.

But she wanted more than 'any man'. The woman from Liaoning province in China wanted Singapore citizenship.

Like many of her peers, the diploma-holder wanted to strike it rich in what she saw as the land of opportunity.

A San Mateo County Superior Court judge today sentenced Bobby Tran to 30 years in prison for killing a 22-year-old Chinese immigrant who had enlisted his help arranging a sham marriage so she could stay in the United States.

"Until death do us part" did not extend beyond the courthouse steps for three members of an immigrant family after each member married U.S. citizens in Kansas City.

A mum who claims her marriage to a gay man was a sham has been jailed for a £60,000 benefit fraud scam.

From the page:

-- Their marriage is cleared of sham status, but the native Kenyan is accused of having another husband in Africa. --

From the page:

-- Federal authorities Tuesday announced charges against two dozen people accused of helping bring Vietnamese to Utah through sham marriages. --

From the page:

-- Indonesia has deported five Saudi men for entering into short-term marriages with local women so they could have sex, a newspaper reported yesterday. --

From the page:

-- A West Hartford man has pleaded guilty to a charge stemming from a scheme involving fraudulent marriages. --

From the page:

-- A Teenager lured to Pakistan by her parents and forced into an arranged marriage with her cousin won an annulment yesterday. --

From the page:

--Two Vancouver brothers were sentenced Friday to federal prison for orchestrating a marriage scam that got more than four dozen Vietnamese nationals into the United States on fiancee visas. --

From the page:

-- Lately, many Namibian women have fallen victim to abuse from their foreign spouses who just turn up to exploit the system through marriages of convenience. --

From the page:

-- More than 20,000 members of B.C.'s Indo-Canadian community have signed a petition calling on the federal government to change the Immigration Act to stop marriage fraud. --

From the page:

-- A Daly City man faces up to 30 years in prison in the death of a Chinese immigrant whose sham marriage he arranged so she could stay in the country. --

From the article:

-- An Upottery man is devastated that his Philippino wife and baby might be deported because immigration officials do not believe they are living together. --

-- A former U.S. immigration office worker who joined with others to make more than $1 million by producing hundreds of fake green cards was among 30 people charged when the sham marriage scam was broken up Wednesday, officials said.

Phillip A. Browne, a U.S. immigration office worker who resigned in November, allegedly conspired with his sister from April 2001 until November to provide the permanent residence documents in exchange for fees ranging from $8,000 to $16,000.

The sister, Beverly Mozer-Browne, owned and operated a Queens business, Help Preparers Professional Services, that claimed to offer financial and legal help when its primary business was actually to provide the bogus documents, according to an indictment in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

Browne, 40, and Mozer-Browne, 49, had residences in Brooklyn and Kissimmee, Fla., authorities said. They were awaiting appearances in court. It was unclear who would represent them.

Authorities said 27 of 30 people were arrested Wednesday and three were being sought. --

-- Just as Shajila Singh escaped her sham marriage and thought she was on the mend from emotional and physical abuse, the Burnaby resident got hit with a second blow.

This time, it was a $27,000 bill racked up by her welfare-collecting ex-husband who, unbeknownst to her, was under a deportation order to India when they married.

Singh, 34, is now speaking out against the practice of using sham marriages as a passport into Canada — and the exploitation of social services by sponsored spouses once they arrive.

Under immigration laws, anyone who sponsors a spouse into Canada is financially responsible for them for 10 years. Sponsors remain financially responsible even in the event that their spouse falsely represented themselves in order to marry a Canadian and gain access to the country.

Raj Chouhan, a Burnaby New Democrat MLA, says he's been approached by dozens of people over the past three months about this issue.

Chouhan and Coquitlam-Maillardville MLA Diane Thorne have organized a public meeting Wednesday to raise awareness of the financial toll on victims of fraudulent marriages. Singh will be one of eight speakers at the meeting.

Chouhan says the province needs to change its law so that if there's strong evidence that a man or woman was duped into a sham marriage, the victim should not be financially responsible for their sponsored spouse.

"It's re-victimizing the victim," said Chouhan. "This is absolutely unfair . . . We need to raise the profile and awareness of this issue." --

-- At 32, lifelong Vancouverite Christine Nevedica Mehta claims she has endured more than any woman should: a sham marriage that included verbal and physical abuse, rape, and, now, $10,000 in child-support payments owed her by her ex-husband. It started when she agreed to an arranged marriage 12 years ago. Her ex, she said, falsely wooed her while he was on vacation in Canada, from India. He used her, she claimed, to immigrate and then sponsor his parents. It was not a real marriage, she said.

"These people enter the country, they bypass our laws, and the government can't put a stop to it," she told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview May 29. "What's happening to our rights? Our Canadian rights?"

On June 7, Mehta will be one of eight Canadians speaking out at a meeting organized by NDP MLA Raj Chouhan (Burnaby-Edmonds). It's a step toward legislation that may help prevent shams: the international term for immigration-inspired false marriage. Shajila Singh, who will speak at the meeting, claimed her sham marriage cost her $27,000 because her ex-husband went on welfare, for which she had to reimburse the province (for details see www.shajila.com/).

Under immigration laws, a Canadian who sponsors a foreign spouse must be financially responsible for him or her for 10 years. Chouhan has two solutions. First, deport any immigrant involved in a sham marriage. Second, eliminate the law that makes sham-marriage victims responsible for their spouses' finances. --

-- Tatiana Shaurova has followed the national debate over millions of illegal aliens and how they should be treated.

But what really worries her is her own situation.

Shaurova is a Russian visitor to this country, married to an American citizen and living in Orchard Park. For nearly four years, she has been trying to play the U.S. immigration game by the book.

But the 30-year-old woman says it has been impossible to get an answer from U.S. immigration authorities on her request for a green card. The green card would make her a permanent resident and put her on track to become a naturalized American citizen.

"I feel so helpless," Shaurova said. "Some people come to America as illegal aliens, just to get benefits. I'm trying to do things legally, and nothing works." --

-- Convicted child killer Min Chen will spend at least the next 13 years in prison before he can even think about applying for parole for murdering Toronto schoolgirl Cecilia Zhang.

"This was not an accidental killing in the course of a bungled kidnapping," Justice Bruce Durno told a Brampton courtroom Friday morning before setting Chen's parole ineligibility at 15 years. "He meant to cause her bodily harm." --

-- Chen admitted he broke into the family's Whitehorn Cres. home through a kitchen window in the early hours of Oct. 20, 2003 with the intention of kidnapping the young girl and then holding her for ransom, money that he intended to use for a sham marriage so he could remain in Canada. --

-- Dear Cary,

I am seriously considering offering to marry a man from another country so that he can get his citizenship -- and I can get a lot of money.

Even as I'm typing these words, I know how horrible they sound. But I am not a huge advocate of marriage, am currently single (have had great love in my life), and I need capital to get a business off the ground. I know this is morally reprehensible to a lot of people, but, truthfully, it is an amazing little piece of power that I am holding that could change the lives of two people. I wouldn't marry just anyone -- he would need to be decent and his reasons for wanting to be an American citizen would need to be pure, non-criminal (I know, I know, marrying me would be a crime, but you know what I mean), and of sound mind. --

-- A growing number of Chinese immigrants are paying up to $50,000 to enter into so-called marriages of convenience to help them stay in Canada, an immigration consultant says.

"Marriages of convenience are increasing substantially ... because it takes so long to process immigration cases," Tony Luk, president of the Chinese Immigration Consultants' Association, told the Toronto Star yesterday.

"I've heard that the price has gone to $30,000 to $40,000 ... and the highest I've heard is about $50,000," he said.

Yesterday, Min Chen, a 23-year-old former visa student, pleaded guilty to kidnapping 9-year-old Cecilia Zhang from her North York home in hopes of extorting enough money from her family to pay a Canadian woman to marry him or live together in a common-law relationship. --

-- Here's a true big love story.

Richard L. Kunz marries Janice. Years later, they decide to practice polygamy. Richard and Janice divorce so he can legally marry Rachel. The three live as husband and wives until Rachel dies.

Then Richard takes a new plural wife, Lillie Spencer, but doesn't marry her legally.

Along comes Lynne, a British citizen who needs to marry to stay in the country. Richard secretly weds Lynne as a favor to her real polygamous husband, Andrew Williams, who is already legally married.

Richard dies in 2003, and Janice discovers his marriage to Lynne, who never lived with Richard but is now Richard's legal widow.

That's the tangled web a domestic commissioner, a 3rd District Court judge and now the Utah Court of Appeals have had to sort out. --

-- If only the government at Westminster did not rush into legislation without thinking things through and listening to more sober counsel. As a result it is now forced - rightly - to suspend controversial new rules on "sham" marriages which the High Court considers are in breach of human rights.

It is a shame - because no--one in their right mind can suppose the institution of marriage has not been cynically and extensively abused to provide a loophole through which immigration controls could be by-passed - and indeed via which humans were being trafficked.

But by not framing its law correctly, the government has, it would appear, been guilty of unlawful discrimination.

This is why parliamentary scrutiny - however unfashionable and unnecessary it may seem - works. And why the government's good intentions once again have foundered on its arrogance and inexperience.

Consider one recent case in which a gang are thought to have made millions of pounds from organising more than 120 sham marriages to enable Nigerian immigrants to stay in Britain. --

-- Eight U.S. sailors at a Florida navy station fraudulently married Polish and Romanian women in order to collect extra housing allowances, according to federal charges filed on Tuesday.

The women did not live with their Navy husbands, but used the sham marriages to apply for U.S. citizenship, U.S. Attorney Paul Perez said in a news release.

The sailors, seven of whom are still in the Navy, were all stationed at the Mayport naval station in northeast Florida.

They were charged with conspiracy, marriage fraud and making false claims to the government to collect $35,000 worth of extra housing allowances.

The tax-free allowances for off-base housing are based partly on marital status and number of dependents. --

-- A government crackdown on "sham marriages" is in disarray after three young couples determined to wed in Britain won a court victory over Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary.

Izabela Trzcinska, who is a Pole living legally in this country, was not allowed to marry Mahmoud Baiai, from Algeria, who entered the country illegally.

Supported by a couple who are Kosovan and Albanian and a Turkish couple, they took their fight to the High Court, which ruled yesterday that their human rights had been breached.

It was the first case to come to the courts under the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects the right to marry and found a family. --

-- Home Office ministers last night suspended their drive against "sham" marriages involving migrants after a high court judge ruled it was discriminatory because those who married in Church of England ceremonies were exempt from the clampdown.

Mr Justice Silber said he was troubled by the fact that migrants who married in non-Anglican religious ceremonies needed a certificate of approval from the home secretary.

He said the Home Office rules breached the right to marry and start a family under the European convention on human rights. The ruling will affect hundreds of migrants who want to marry in Britain. --

-- The Government has suspended the operation of controversial new rules on "sham marriages" following a High Court ruling that they breached human rights laws.

The test case judgment, won by couples including an illegal entrant to the UK from Algeria, also led to the immediate launch of claims for damages from those denied "the right to marry". Hundreds of other cases are potentially affected.

The judgment is a serious blow to Government moves, set in motion by former Home Secretary David Blunkett, to end marriages of convenience which abuse immigration controls.

The judge said preventing sham marriages was a legitimate aim, but the new marriage rules, introduced in February 2005, were not "rationally connected to that aim".

Unlawful discrimination had arisen because Church of England marriages were exempt from the rules, which prevented persons subject to immigration control from marrying unless they obtained certificates of approval from the Home Office. --

-- Even as the Senate and President Bush on Thursday were compromising on a proposal to restrict the number of foreigners allowed to remain in the USA, one point was overlooked: There are no limits on foreign spouses.

If you can marry a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident (a "green card" holder), you're guaranteed permanent access to the USA.

More foreigners gain U.S. residency through marriage than any other way, Department of Homeland Security data show. Marriage-based immigration accounted for 37% of all legal immigration in 2004, more than refugees and asylum seekers and employment-based immigrants combined.

Yet, Congress and the Bush administration have been so focused on border fences, guest-worker or amnesty programs that marriage-based immigration fraud has largely gone unnoticed. Immigration officials described fraud as rampant in a 2002 GAO report. Marriage fraud accounted for approximately half of all immigration fraud cases, the agency reported. --