US couples charged with fake marriages

A group of people from Chicago have been charged with entering into fake marriages to help immigrants get permanent residency in the US.

In total nine US citizens and nine eastern Europeans wed as part of a scheme which is thought to have been concocted by Jeremy Starnes. The men and women from Chicago were offered $5,000 (£2,500) to enter into the fake marriages. According to the Associated Press, they were reportedly paid the money in instalments, with the first on the wedding day and the second when the eastern Europeans were awarded legal status.

The indictment said: "The US citizens took steps to further each other's marriage frauds, including driving each other to and attending each other's weddings and posing for photographs after the weddings, well knowing that the photographs were to be used to support the legitimacy of the fraudulent marriages."

Mr Starnes, 31, appeared in court on Monday (June 11th) and pleaded not guilty to the charge of falsely marrying his co-defendant Svetlana Kostigova.