Nigerian wedding ring

6th January 2012

As many as 31 people were implicated in a bogus wedding racket that married Nigerian men to Polish women for EUR 5,000.

Investigators said they suspected 20 fraudulent marriages had taken place between 2005 and 2007 in Warsaw, Pruszkow and Chorzow. One woman is reported to have agreed to marry twice in the scam.

“Four Nigerians and five Polish citizens, including three women, were the network’s main organisers,” Marta Zawada-Dybek, spokeswoman for the Katowice regional prosecutor, was quoted as saying by the PAP news agency, although she added 31 people were under investigation.

“Eager to marry, the men handed over about EUR 5,000,” continued Ms Zawada-Dybek. “The money was divided between the organisers and the women. The women received half their fee up front and the second half after the men had received their residency papers.

The Nigerians in the gang had, apparently, spread information in Nigeria that they could arrange marriages in Poland that would eventually allow the men to stay in the EU. They also claimed that they had managed to get residency permits from marrying Poles.

One of the Nigerians under investigation also faces accusations of counterfeiting official Nigerian documents used in the bogus marriages.

The Poles involved targeted women who were ready to marry for money, with most of the women seeing the scam as a good way to escape difficult financial circumstances.

The case had come to light after border guards discovered that in two of the marriages the couples did not live together, and, in fact, knew very little about each other.

Prosecutors said that 22 of those involved, including one of the Nigerian ringleaders, have pleaded guilty and submitted themselves for punishment.

News of the scam will increase pressure on authorities to ensure that marriages are not abused by people eager to profit from those desperate to enter Poland by any means possible. Poland’s EU membership and strong economy means that it is becoming an increasingly popular destination for anybody wanting to escape their home countries in the developing world.