Dubbed the "serial bride," a New York City woman who married 10 times in 11 years without divorcing was arrested Tuesday. If you're thinking immigration scam you're on the right track.
Liana Barrientos, 39, was charged in April in an alleged immigration scam, marrying 10 foreign-born men, filing false marriage license applications and a fake marriage license,
according to the New York Daily News. The charges could land the woman in jail for four years.
Barrientos angered New York City Supreme Court Judge Steven Barrett when she missed a scheduled hearing on Monday. Standing with Barrientos on Tuesday, attorney Chris Wright asked for leniency.
Barrett, though, ordered the woman jailed and set bond at $10,000.
"I do not believe that Ms. Barrientos fully understands the gravity of these proceedings or her obligation to appear timely at every scheduled court appearance," Barrett told Wright.
WPIX-TV reported the district attorney complained that Barrientos filed marriage licenses in the Bronx, Westchester, Rockland County and Long Island. The Bronx district attorney's office charged that at one point she married six times in a span of just six months in 2002.
Prosecutors expressed security concerns by Barrientos actions because seven of the men she married hailed from a watch list of Homeland Security "red flagged" countries. She married men from Egypt, Turkey, Georgia, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Mali.
WNBC-TV reported that some of the men used Barrientos information to then file for permanent residency in the United States after the marriages. One of Barrientos' "husbands" was deported to his home country of Pakistan in 2006 when a Joint Terrorism Task Force investigation discovered that he made threatening statements toward the United States.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigators and Homeland Security first brought Barrientos' case to the attention of the Bronx district attorney's office.
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