Thread: OH-MARRIAGE FRAUD,Former husband, wife plead guilty

MARRIAGE FRAUD
Former husband, wife plead guilty
Tuesday, September 29, 2009 4:45 AM
By Jeb Phillips


A Columbus-area immigration lawyer and her ex-husband pleaded guilty yesterday to marriage fraud.

Lilian Asante, 37, and Kwadwo Asante, 39, both natives of Ghana, admitted marrying U.S. citizens in an effort to become permanent residents. In fact, the Asantes live together as husband and wife in Blacklick.

The Asantes married in 1999 in Ghana and came to Ohio for graduate school in 2002, according to a statement that Special Agent Jeffrey Landthorn of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement read yesterday in federal court. They divorced in 2004 and married other people in 2005 and 2006. But the Asantes bought a house together, continued to live together and had a child together in 2008.

Lilian Asante graduated with a law degree from Ohio State University and practiced in Columbus. She was accused of using her knowledge of immigration law to help her husband and Kwadwo Asante's wife answer questions from immigration officials.



Kwadwo Asante has a master's degree in business administration from Case Western Reserve University.

Each Asante pleaded guilty yesterday to one felony count of entering into a marriage to evade the immigration laws of the United States. Each could be sentenced to five years in prison, fined $250,000, put on three years of supervised release and deported. Judge Gregory L. Frost said that Lilian Asante also could lose her law license.

The court has not scheduled a sentencing hearing.

jeb.phillips@dispatch.com

http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/co ... ml?sid=101

Lilian Asante graduated with a law degree from Ohio State University and practiced in Columbus. She was accused of using her knowledge of immigration law to help her husband and Kwadwo Asante's wife answer questions from immigration officials.

We are being sent other countries finest alright!

Each Asante pleaded guilty yesterday to one felony count of entering into a marriage to evade the immigration laws of the United States. Each could be sentenced to five years in prison, fined $250,000, put on three years of supervised release and deported.

And this is EXACTLY what should happen... along with the Gov't confiscating EVERYTHING they have accrued! There is NO excuse for this, and they should pay plus never be allowed back into the US.

I wonder if Lilian Asante, gets to keep her license to practice law ?

Some background info from a previous Colum,bus Dispatch article

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/lo ... EPQSG.html

Nuptial fraud
Couple accused of fake weddings so they could stay in America
Monday, August 17, 2009 3:03 AM
By Jeb Phillips

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Lilian Asante could face five years in prison and deportation.
In the movie versions of this romantic comedy, Gerard Depardieu and Andie MacDowell fall in love at the end. Ryan Reynolds decides he wants to marry Sandra Bullock for the right reasons, thwarting the immigration agent.

The central Ohio version -- known in federal court as the United States of America v. Lilian Asante and Kwadwo Asante -- is not so cuddly or tidy.

The Asantes have a 10-month-old son. Lilian Asante is an immigration lawyer with a law degree from Ohio State University. Kwadwo Asante has a master's degree in business administration from Case Western Reserve University and, until recently, worked as a financial analyst at Nationwide.

They now face the possibilities of five years in prison, $250,000 in fines and deportation to their native Ghana. On Thursday, both pleaded not guilty to counts of marriage fraud and conspiracy to commit marriage fraud.

But according to an affidavit filed in federal court in Columbus, Lilian Asante already has admitted she married a Florida man purely to become a permanent resident of the United States. She actually lives with Kwadwo Asante and their son in Blacklick, the affidavit says.

For his part, Kwadwo Asante is accused of marrying a Youngstown woman for the sole purpose of staying in this country. Lilian Asante, with her knowledge of immigration law, "provided guidance" to the man in Florida and the woman in Youngstown about how to answer questions from immigration officials, according to the indictment.

In 2008, 238 cases of marriage fraud were prosecuted in the U.S. The Asante case seems to be the only one involving central Ohio in at least the past year, said Khaalid Walls, a spokesman in the Detroit office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The Asantes declined to comment through their attorney. Their "spouses," who are cooperating with investigators and have not been charged with crimes, also declined to comment. Government officials would not provide details of the investigation other than what is already part of federal-court record.

But that record does provide an outline of the case.

Kwadwo Asante, 39, and Lilian Asante, 37, were married on June 5, 1999, in Ghana. In August 2002, both were admitted to the U.S. as students -- Kwadwo at Case Western, Lilian at Ohio State.

The Asantes had their marriage dissolved in May 2004. Kwadwo Asante remarried in 2005 and Lilian Asante in 2006. Each attended the other's marriage ceremony, and each began the process of becoming a permanent U.S. resident.

In June 2006, just four months after Lilian Asante remarried, she applied for a mortgage with Kwadwo for the home in Blacklick, though she maintained in immigration documents that she lived in Florida. Kwadwo Asante said that his primary address was in Youngstown. The mortgage's first page says, "Borrower is Kwadwo W. Asante and Lilian A. Asante, husband and wife."

The government investigation appears to have begun by April 2008, when Special Agent Jeffrey Landthorn of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement saw the Asantes leaving the Blacklick house together. It's unclear from court records what sparked the investigation.

In October, agents looked through trash from the Blacklick house and found mail addressed to both Asantes there. They interviewed neighbors who identified the Asantes as husband and wife. That same month, Lilian had a child and Kwadwo was listed on the birth certificate as the father.

Lilian Asante and the man she married appeared at a Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Tampa, Fla., in June as part of their request that she become a permanent legal resident.

According to the court records, the two admitted the fraud when they were interviewed separately. The man signed a statement saying, in part: "I married Lilian Antwiwaa Asante to help her obtain her resident alien status. We have never resided together as husband and wife. We have never consummated the marriage."

Lilian and Kwadwo Asante were arrested on July 24 and released on their own recognizance, and then indicted on Aug. 4. Their trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 28 in U.S. District Court in Columbus.

jeb.phillips@dispatch.com

She was accused of using her knowledge of immigration law to help her husband and Kwadwo Asante's wife answer questions from immigration officials.

I suspect many, if not all, immigration attorneys 'game the system' in the same manner to aide IAs.

Filed a complain for Unprofessional Conduct ~

Office of Disciplinary Counsel
250 Civic Center Drive, Ste. 325
Columbus, Ohio 43215-7411
Tel. 614.461.0256, 800.589.5256
Fax: 614.461.7205

Might help grease the wheels of justice.