Article published Dec 15, 2006
Man pleads guilty to fake marriage scam

PROVIDENCE -- A man pleaded guilty Thursday to arranging at least 15 fake marriages for undocumented immigrants who were trying to get their green cards.

Federal prosecutors said Carlos Alberto Da Veiga, of New Bedford, Mass., charged each immigrant about $5,500 for setting up the marriages to U.S. citizens. He also offered a fee of $1,500 to the U.S. citizen on the day of the marriage.

Da Veiga was arrested in October after an investigation by the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

An employee in the Cumberland town clerk's office contacted the federal bureau to report suspicious behavior by a couple applying for a marriage license, prosecutors said. Agents received another complaint from the town in July.

Agents watched Da Veiga drive a couple from the Cumberland town hall to a justice of the peace in Providence to be married, and also found a file in his car containing biographical information about U.S. citizens and immigrants.

Da Veiga told federal immigration agents he had been taking couples to Rhode Island because there was no waiting period required between obtaining a marriage license and actually getting married, prosecutors said.

Da Veiga pleaded guilty to conspiracy to enter into marriages for the purpose of evading immigration laws.

-- The Associated Press

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