Inside ICE: Volume 2, Issue 19

Federal Grand Jury Indicts 12 for Marriage Scam, Smuggling

CHICAGO, Ill. — Following an ICE investigation, a federal grand jury handed down indictments September 15 charging 12 defendants with recruiting and offering U.S citizens up to $10,000 to marry Lithuanian nationals for the purpose of fraudulently obtaining immigration benefits.

The defendants were charged in two multi-count indictments that said U.S. citizens were recruited and offered between $8,000 and $10,000 to engage in fraudulent marriages with Lithuanian nationals. At times, the U.S. citizens were instructed to travel to Lithuania to marry the foreign national, and other times the U.S. citizens were recruited to marry Lithuanian nationals already living illegally in the U.S.

One indictment alleges that Remigijus Adomaitis, 28, recruited and paid a U.S. citizen to travel to Lithuania in November 2004 to marry a Lithuanian woman he had never met. After the marriage took place, Adomaitis accompanied the U.S. citizen to the U.S. embassy in Warsaw, Poland, to help him file paperwork that allowed the woman to fraudulently enter the U.S. The U.S citizen was to be paid $1,000 after the marriage, and $250 a month for two to three years.

“The national security and public safety of our nation depends on an immigration system with integrity,” said Special Agent-in-Charge Elissa A. Brown of the Chicago ICE office. “ICE is restoring this integrity by aggressively targeting the criminals and human smuggling organizations that are motivated by pure greed and profit.”

Back to Top

ICE Helps Recover Masterpieces

ICE Nabs Three At Nuke Plant

ICE Response To Katrina Unprecedented

ICE Deports Bank Robber To Eritrea

ICE, Brazilians Break Human Smuggling Ring

Senate Witness on Hawalas Sentenced for Running One

Federal Grand Jury Indicts 12 for Marriage Scam, Smuggling

ICE, CBP Donate Seized Clothes to Hurricane Katrina Victims

Special Response

Receive the latest ICE newsletter twice a month right to your inbox. Simply enter your information below.

Inside ICE is an e-newsletter produced by the ICE Office of Public Affairs to inform the public about the mission, operations and activities of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Please send comments and contributions to Russ Bergeron, Editor.

425 I St NW
Washington, D.C. 20536
Attn: Office of Public Affairs
Russ Bergeron, Editor
Phone: 202-514-2648
Fax: 202-514-1776
Russ.Bergeron@dhs.gov