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ASSOCIATED PRESS

11:01 a.m. December 3, 2005

LOS ANGELES – Federal authorities have broken up a ring that offered to erase gambling debts in exchange for the debtors' promise to marry Asians seeking U.S. citizenship.

Authorities this week arrested 11 of the 44 men and women suspected of operating or participating in the marriage scam. On Friday, one of the alleged ring leaders, Marian Therese Thai, turned herself in to authorities. Thai, 53, of Westminster, faces numerous federal charges, including conspiracy, harboring aliens and marriage fraud.

She did not turn herself in earlier because she was out of town on her honeymoon, officials said.

The scam's organizers often visited Southern California casinos where they found people down on their luck.

"They were able to find people who were on a losing streak who would be willing to do something illegal for the right price," said Virginia Kice, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Officials said leaders of the ring charged Chinese and Vietnamese nationals as much as $60,000 to marry American citizens to obtain green cards. Thai ran the business out of her now-defunct MT Travel agency in Westminster where she produced fake wedding pictures, joint tax returns and love letters, officials said.

Authorities discovered the scam after immigration agency employees discovered U.S. citizens who were petitioning for more than one spouse to receive green cards. They believe some of the U.S. citizens were paid as much as $5,000 to marry foreign nationals.

Some of those arrested worked as professional gamblers, authorities said.