Sacramento man admits to orchestrating elaborate marriage fraud scheme

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A Sacramento man, who together with two others orchestrated an elaborate marriage fraud scheme involving foreign nationals from India who paid to enter into sham engagements or marriages with U.S. citizens, pleaded guilty in federal court Friday.

Sippy Lal, 61, of Sacramento, admitted to conspiring to induce aliens to illegally enter the U.S. for private financial gain. Lal’s co-defendants, Mamta Sharma and Rani Singh-Lal, previously entered guilty pleas for their role in the scheme and were sentenced to prison terms of 24 months and 27 months, respectively.

This case is the product of a probe by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services – Fraud Detection and National Security Unit; and the California Department of Justice – Bureau of Investigation and Intelligence. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michele Beckwith and Philip Ferrari are prosecuting the case.

According to court documents, U.S. citizens recruited by Lal were paid thousands of dollars to fly to India, meet and take pictures with a purported spouse, and sometimes enter into actual marriages (albeit often using aliases). Subsequently, the defendants filed fraudulent visa petitions seeking to allow the Indian nationals to enter and live in the U.S. On at least one occasion, after an alien entered the U.S. on a fraudulent fiancé visa procured through the scheme, Lal paid a U.S. citizen to further participate by entering into a sham marriage with the alien in Sacramento.

Lal’s co-defendant Sharma used various aliases to pose as a U.S. citizen in connection with five different petitions filed since 2008, despite the fact she is not a U.S. citizen and was married to Lal the entire time. Similarly, co-defendant Rani Singh-Lal posed as the petitioner with respect to three different petitions, all filed with slight variations on her true name.

According to Lal’s plea agreement, more than 25 fraudulent petitions were submitted to immigration authorities as a result of the conspiracy, and at least nine Indian nationals entered the United States and were, at least for some period of time, able to avoid detection.

Lal’s sentencing is set for March 6, 2015. The plea agreement contemplates a sentence of two years. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court at the hearing.