Two still sought in phony marriage investigation

NORFOLK

Federal authorities have located all but two of the 33 suspects in an investigation into bogus marriages between Navy sailors and illegal immigrants.

As of Thursday, about half were arrested in Hampton Roads and the rest picked up in other states to be returned to Norfolk to face federal indictments unsealed this week.

Navy investigators, with help from immigration agents and Virginia Beach police, conducted a lengthy investigation of sailors and illegal immigrants arranging phony marriages.

Over the past two years, at least 73 people have been arrested in the ongoing investigation. The sailors would get paid between $1,000 and $6,000 to marry and then receive an additional housing allowance from the Navy, typically around $1,200 a month.

The sailors' brides rarely lived with their new husbands, according to court records filed in the case. The illegal immigrants married to get green cards and ultimately citizenship.

In cases already adjudicated, sailors typically have received short jail terms and a period of probation and in some cases have been ordered to repay the government the excess housing allowance.

Some sailors received as much as $40,000 in housing money they were not entitled to. The Navy said the scam has cost taxpayers at least $225,000.

The sailors also face administrative punishment from the Navy, which could include a dishonorable discharge. In still other cases, the Navy will prosecute sailors criminally, instead of the U.S. attorney's office, but those cases have not involved foreign nationals.

"We take each one on a case-by-case basis," said Navy spokeswoman Beth Baker. "Anyone who submits a housing claim with false statements is eligible for court-martial."

Foreign nationals convicted in prior cases in federal court also got short jail terms, usually a month or two, but some have received as much as a year in prison. They then face deportation with little hope of ever returning here.

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service used different methods to uncover the widespread conspiracy. In at least two cases over the past two years, an undercover agent married a foreign national in exchange for cash, court records show.

Other times, the agents had informants - typically people already arrested - provide information on sham marriages. In many cases, couples met at an Ocean View bar and arranged marriages at Norfolk or Virginia Beach city halls, the records say.

Several people, both sailors and illegal immigrants, acted as marriage brokers.

In the federal indictment unsealed this week, Michael L. Wolfe, a former sailor who served on the Iwo Jima, is charged along with his wife with arranging four sham marriages between other sailors and foreign nationals.

Wolfe himself married a Russian woman named Natalia E. Lukina, and she also was charged with helping arrange the marriages. Her role, according to the indictment, was to find the brides. Authorities said they expected to arrest Wolfe and his wife in Kentucky on Thursday where they were living together, apparently as a legitimate couple.

The four sailors, currently on board the Iwo Jima, married Russian women living here illegally, the indictment says. The sailors are expected to be taken into federal custody when their ship returns from sea.

As word of the investigation spread in recent months, some defendants hurriedly filed, or planned to file, divorce papers, according to the court records. Two suspects could not be located as of Thursday.

Tim McGlone, (757) 446-2343, tim.mcglone@pilotonline.com