BOSTON – A quartet from California has been sentenced after orchestrating a large-scale marriage fraud racket, setting up hundreds of fake unions to evade U.S. immigration laws, announced the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Philippine nationals Mars Benitez, 50, Juanita Pacson, 48, Engilbert Ulan, 43, and Nino Valmeo, 47, all from Los Angeles, were charged in April 2022 with conspiracy in a scam that involved arranging fake marriages to help undocumented immigrants gain green cards, including through misuse of the Violence Against Women Act; they pocketed between $20,000 and $35,000 per client from their so-called "agency", according to a statement released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Sentences ranged from prison time to supervised release and home detention, with Benitez receiving 22 months behind bars, Pacson facing home detention, and Ulan getting a 14-month sentence, while Valmeo was given a six-month home confinement period, the hearings presided over by U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper.
The scam, running from October 2016 to March 2022, relied on fake wedding ceremonies, fraudulent marriage documents, and staged interviews to fool immigration authorities, with Photos taken in front of prop wedding decorations that were later submitted with immigration petitions; this collusion also saw clients claim domestic abuse to exploit VAWA provisions for acquiring lawful residency without their American spouse's aid, showing a cruel manipulation of systems meant to protect the truly vulnerable.
Benitez led the operation from LA offices, utilizing staff members Ulan and Valmeo, and Pacson who worked at a chapel, to execute the sham weddings and generate false documents; these staged unions were crafted with such precision that practice interviews aimed to perfect lies told during green card interviews.
Co-defendants had various roles ranging from recruiting Americans to marry for money and referring potential clients to the agency, with prior sentences for others involved including five months in prison for Peterson Souza, and supervised release for Felipe David.
