A 39-year-old Bronx woman appeared in court today facing felony charges for marrying ten different men over the course of eleven years. She pleaded not guilty to the apparent immigration scam. “‘Stay the f–k away from me before I spit in your face!’ a peeved Liana Barrientos shouted at reporters trying to talk to her on E. 161st St. Thursday after she appeared briefly to face charges of felony fraud.”
Barrientos began her bigamy in 1999 when she married Mohammed Gebril followed by two more marriages in November 2001, two months after 911. She then said “I do,” six more times in 2002. Her green-card-marriage scheme finally caught the attention in of authorities when she filed for a marriage license with husband number ten.
Barrientos a ” . . . native of the Dominican Republic was outed as a serial spouse following a probe of her most recent nuptials in March 2010.” Authorities are investigating her husbands, some of whom are from countries which are red-flagged by the Department of Homeland Security. She married men from Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey, Georgia, and Mali among other countries. “In 2006, Groom No. 8 … was deported to his home country of Pakistan following an investigation by the Joint Terrorism Task Force.”
Some of Barrientos’s husbands filed for divorce after their green card applications were rejected and they later reapplied for citizenship after remarrying other wives. “Her lawyer claimed that the frequent bride would soon put the charges behind her. ‘She’s just a woman trying to get over a hump in life,’ said attorney Christopher Wright.”
The Bronx Supreme court has adjourned the case until September 29, 2015.
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