Sippy Lal, Marriage Fraud, California 2015

A Sacramento man has pleaded guilty to orchestrating an extensive marriage fraud scheme, which allowed dozens of Indian nationals to enter the United States under false pretenses.

Sippy Lal, 61, of Sacramento, pleaded guilty today to conspiring to induce aliens to illegally enter the United States for private financial gain, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced.

According to court documents, Lal and his co-defendants Mamta Sharma and Rani Singh-Lal were involved in an elaborate immigration-fraud scheme involving foreign nationals from India who paid to enter into sham engagements or marriages with locally recruited U.S. citizens in an effort to legalize their immigration status.

The citizens recruited by Lal were paid thousands of dollars to fly to India, meet and take pictures with a purported spouse, and sometimes enter into actual marriages (albeit often using aliases). Thereafter, fraudulent petitions were filed with the United States seeking visas allowing the Indian citizens to enter and reside within the United States.

Co-defendant Sharma used various aliases to pose as a U.S. citizen in connection with five different petitions filed since 2008, despite the fact that she is not a U.S. citizen and despite the fact that she was married to Lal throughout that time period.

Similarly, co-defendant Singh-Lal posed as the petitioner with respect to three different petitions, all filed with slight variations on her true name.

According to Lal’s plea agreement, well over 25 fraudulent petitions were submitted to immigration authorities as a result of the conspiracy, and at least nine Indian nationals entered the United States and were, at least for some period of time, able to avoid detection.

Lal is scheduled to be sentenced by United States District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. on March 6, 2015. The plea agreement contemplates a sentence of two years.

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