Woman admits to sham marriage
By Ken Kobayashi
Advertiser Courts Writer
A 28-year-old Honolulu woman pleaded guilty yesterday to getting $6,000 for entering a sham marriage with a Chinese national to help him enter the United States.
Melinda Tran pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge that carries up to five years in prison and agreed to cooperate with authorities and testify against others.
Others charged with participating in the sham marriage conspiracy include Tran's mother, Lee Thi Tran, and Andy Cuong Nguyen, also known as Phillip Lam, a California man accused of handing out $6,000 each to Melinda Tran and others who entered sham marriages with Chinese nationals.
"I agreed to get paid to marry an alien ... so he could come to the United States," Melinda Tran told federal Magistrate Judge Leslie Kobayashi.
Kobayashi scheduled Melinda Tran's sentencing for Jan. 25 before U.S. District Judge Helen Gillmor.
Melinda Tran admitted that in 2002 she went to China and married a man she had never met. Nguyen, who met her in China, handled her food and hotel accommodations, she said. Nguyen paid her $6,000 and promised she would receive another $14,000 once her new spouse got into the U.S., Melinda Tran admitted.
She also admitted that she recruited other U.S. citizens to participate in the scheme.
Nguyen and three other men have been charged in a federal indictment with conspiring from 2002 to 2005 to get Chinese nationals into the U.S. through sham marriages.
He is accused of providing airline tickets and $6,000 each to U.S. citizens to go to China and enter in sham marriages. The indictment charges Charles Farfan, Curtis McLean Jr. and Peter Matthews with entering sham marriages in 2003.
Lee Tran is charged with conspiring to bring in Chinese aliens through sham marriages. She is accused of recruiting U.S. citizens to participate in the sham marriages and getting $500 to $1,000 from Nguyen for each recruit and more money once the Chinese national got into the U.S.
The charges against Melinda Tran's mother and Nguyen and the three men are pending.
Reach Ken Kobayashi at kkobayashi@honoluluadvertiser.com.
