PORTLAND — A Kenyan woman whose marriage to a Lewiston man was labeled a “sham” by federal authorities was expected to be sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Bangor. It would close a string of prosecutions stemming from more than 40 bogus marriages in the Twin Cities area and Newport between Mainers and African nationals.
Margaret Kimani of Springfield, Mass., who married a man in Lewiston in 2003, was convicted by a jury in December of defrauding the United States. She faces up to five years in prison and/or a fine of up to $250,000 on the felony charge.
Two Massachusetts men from Africa who plotted to arrange marriages for African nationals with Americans in an effort to secure U.S. citizenship for them had ties in Lewiston. Twin Cities residents were recruited to enter into the “sham” marriages, prosecutors said.
One of the two men served his sentence and is awaiting deportation; the other fled before he was prosecuted.
The Maine residents were paid to marry the foreign nationals from Kenya, Uganda, Zambia and Cameroon. They also were expected to assist them in fraudulently seeking to obtain a marriage-based change in their immigration status to that of a lawful permanent resident or green card holder, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a written release Monday.
U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II is scheduled to hold a joint news conference Tuesday following Kimani’s sentencing. He’s expected to be joined by Bruce Foucart, Special Agent in Charge for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations in Boston.
That office’s investigation, coupled with the efforts of federal prosecutors, is credited with felony convictions of 28 defendants in Maine since 2010.
In a report, Kimani claimed her husband became abusive several years after they were married and had moved to Massachusetts. She claimed to suffer depression and anxiety due to the abuse and separated from him in 2005. Prosecutors said the claims were part of her conspiracy.
“The defendant knew that none of this was true,” according to her indictment.
cwilliams@sunjournal.com
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