Woman admits fake marriage

A New Jersey woman admitted Thursday to her role in a marriage scam with a Nigerian man living in Whitehall who has also admitted his guilt.

Ajia Strauss, 28, of Newark, pleaded guilty in federal court in Pittsburgh to a count of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. with her fake husband, Monsuru Ogunbiyi, 36.

The pair had been indicted in the summer.

The grand jury said the pair conspired with each other, starting in 2016, to pretend to be married so that Ogunbiyi, a citizen of Nigeria, could obtain permanent residency in the U.S.

As part of the conspiracy, Ogunbiyi paid Strauss $1,500 on the day of their marriage in New Jersey. The pair then supplied false statements and documents to federal authorities about their purported marital status, including a form in which Ogunbiyi said the couple lived together in New Jersey when he was really living in Whitehall.

Ogunbiyi pleaded to the same conspiracy charge in December, and U.S. District Judge Marilyn Horan sentenced him that day to time served.

She said she’ll sentence Strauss in June.

The case is one of several prosecutions of bogus marriages in this district brought in the past two years against defendants trying to skirt immigration laws to stay in the country.

Earlier this month, one of two brothers from India charged with arranging a fake marriage with a woman for his brother so he could stay in the U.S. pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy. Makhan Singh, 53, of Pittsburgh, admitted that he arranged for his younger brother, Rajinder Singh, to marry someone identified in court papers only as D.H. for the purpose of evading immigration laws.

The case against Rajinder Singh is pending.

Last year, a McKees Rocks man was sentenced in federal court to probation after admitting that he pretended to be married to a Nigerian woman so she could gain benefits as a permanent U.S. resident. Norman McCullough admitted that he conspired with a Nigerian couple in Whitehall, Adediran Bamgbose and Temitope Elemosho, to defraud immigration authorities by entering into a fake marriage with Elemosho in exchange for money. He and Elemosho then filed false documents to make it look like they were living together in McKees Rocks when they weren’t.

Elemosho and Bamgbose each received probation.