On Thursday, February 13th, 2020, a 28-year-old New Jersey woman named Ajia Strauss pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to defraud the U.S..

Strauss, who was arraigned before a Pittsburgh Federal Court, admitted to involving herself in a fake marriage with a Nigerian man, who was living in Pittsburgh, to enable him become a permanent resident in the United States.

Prosecutors said that after the wedding ceremony in New Jersey on June 3rd, 2016, the 36-year-old Monsuru Ogunbiyi returned to western Pennsylvania where he was living prior to the marriage.Flavision gathered that apart from paying Strauss $1,500 for the sham marriage, they falsified documents, made false statements to Citizenship and Immigration Services, opened a joint bank account, staged loved up pictures and claimed they were living together.

The U.S. immigration authorities busted them in 2017, after Ogunbiyi filed for permanent residency status. The authorities obtained their text messages, in which they discussed about Strauss’ address and learned more about each other before the sham marriage.

The fake couple were indicted in July 2019 and Ogunbiyi pleaded guilty to the charges in December 2019. He has already served two and half months in jail and will most likely be deported after serving out his term.

Strauss will be sentenced in Pittsburgh on June 3rd, 2020. Authorities say she could be sentenced to up to five (5) years in prison and $250,000 in fines.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.