Nassau, BAHAMAS-A woman wept as she admitted Haitian man paid her $1,500 for a fraudulent marriage so he could legally live in The Bahamas.
Janell Brown, a mother-of-four, pretended to be Jessica Newbold when she entered into the fraudulent marriage with Jugens St. Aude on August 11, 2015.
Newbold learned that someone had stolen her identity and married Haitian national St. Aude when she went to register her baby’s birth in July 2019.
At the time of the fraudulent marriage, Newbold was detained at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services.
Police arrested Brown and St. Aude after investigating Newbold’s complaint.
Brown told investigators that she was paid $1,500 to participate in the marriage fraud scheme. She told investigators that she had used some of the money to buy clothing for her baby.
Despite this, Brown accompanied her Haitian ‘husband’ to the Bahamas Immigration Department to apply for a spousal permit, the court heard.
Brown pleaded guilty to 13 counts of fraud connected to the marriage for Bahamian citizenship scheme at her arraignment before Magistrate Samuel McKinney.
Magistrate McKinney postponed sentencing at the request of Attorney Anthony Newbold, who said that a probation report would assist the court in determining the appropriate punishment.
McKinney remanded Brown to prison, pending her sentencing on April 6.
Brown’s bogus husband, St Aude, is also in prison awaiting trial.
Police have also arrested the Justice of the Peace who performed the sham wedding. He is expected to appear before a court soon.
Earlier this year immigration Minister Elsworth Johnson promised a crackdown of sham marriages, saying the bogus unions were a threat to the country’s national security.
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