Bogus marriages to Trini men

HERE comes the bride. Here she comes again...and again...and again. Whenever there is a racket, expect a Trinidadian connection.

A Manhattan woman, Maria Davis, confessed to New York authorities that she obtained marriage licences to marry men from Trinidad and St Lucia so they could stay in the United States. Each time she “wed,” she was paid US$1,000. Five other women were charged with getting licences to marry men from the Dominican Republic, India, Pakistan, Peru, Nigeria and Bangladesh. Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said yesterday the women received a total of 43 marriage licences to wed illegal immigrants who wanted to stay in the country and were paid up to US$1,000 every time they temporarily tied the knot. One of them, Dezerrie Cortes, 40, of Manhattan, obtained 27 marriage licences between 1984 and 2002, he said. “Maybe that should go in the Guinness Book of World Records,” Morgenthau quipped, adding that Cortes married men from Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, Peru and Pakistan. Investigators believe she also sought marriage licences in Florida. He said the matter of sham marriages was serious enough to merit a continuing investigation given the possibility that terrorists could obtain residency documents this way.

Morgenthau also said he was forwarding the names of the “grooms” to relevant federal agencies to determine whether they were involved in prosecutable wrongdoing such as marriage fraud, Social Security fraud and immigration fraud. Morgenthau said the women were charged with perjury because they lied when seeking the marriage licences. Four of them have been arrested and face up to four years in prison if convicted. In addition to Cortes, the “brides” were identified by authorities as: Maria Davis, 26, of Manhattan, who is charged with perjury and offering a false instrument in seeking three marriage licences between 1998 and 1999 to husbands from Trinidad and St Lucia. Monique Figueroa, 26, of Richmond Hill, who is charged with perjury in four marriage applications between 1999 and 2002. Chera Larkins, 32, of Manhattan, charged with perjury and filing a false instrument in three marriage applications. They were being held on Wednesday night.