After making a bachelor’s level in economics inside her native Ukraine, Valeriya Tsymbal found the usa with the expectation to getting a master’s level, giving cash house to her family members, and saving sufficient to get back and start a camp for kiddies with disabilities.
Alternatively, Tsymbal had been delivered to prison after getting caught in a marriage fraud ring monday.
Shaking and crying after getting a four-month prison term, Tsymbal collapsed in a back hallway outside a courtroom that is federal. Court security officers stated she recovered.
She may have gotten a lot more time.
U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson denied a prosecutor’s demand that Tsymbal get additional prison time for lying to immigration authorities.
Tsymbal pleaded accountable to conspiracy to commit marriage fraud.
She joined the united states on a pupil visa in June 2004, but that expired in March 2005, based on court public records. That very first summer time, she worked at a camp for kids with disabilities in brand New Hampshire before going to Virginia Beach.
Through buddies whom also participated in arranged marriages, Tsymbal married and met, in 2005, Navy sailor Jeremy S. Emrick. Both later on admitted to authorities that the wedding had been a sham, arranged so Tsymbal might get a card that is green her to keep in the united states. Emrick additionally received a extra housing allowance through the Navy.
Emrick has since kept the Navy. Their instance had been utilized in Wyoming, where he pleaded accountable and it is sentencing that is awaiting.
Tsymbal pleaded with Jackson to spare her jail time.
In a page towards the judge, she penned that she’d keep the nation voluntarily.
“I’d a fantasy of getting a life and assisting my children, particularly my dad who had previously been disabled, ” she had written towards the judge.
Her parents offered fresh fresh fruit for a full time income, and she was care that is taking of siblings whilst in the Ukraine. She stated she arrived right right here in order to make a significantly better life on her family members home and therefore she delivered a lot of her profits in their mind.
“we felt obligated to assist my loved ones, who had been struggling to endure within the Ukraine, where people could not pay for meals and clothes that are warm” she believed to the judge.
“we never ever also understood the severity for this work, ” she stated, talking about the marriage that is phony. “I happened to be really lonely and hopeless, and I also saw this since the only option to manage to stay static in the usa and achieve my goals. “
She then apologized.
“we understand my error, and I also feel profoundly sorry for just what We have done, ” she told the judge.
Another Eastern European girl, in a nearly identical situation, additionally had been sentenced Monday.
Ruslana V. Katushynska received 10 months in prison after pleading responsible to conspiracy to commit wedding fraudulence. She admitted stepping into a fraudulent wedding with Navy sailor Michael Metal.
Katushynska admitted that she paid $6,000 for the marriage that is arranged. In exchange, she surely could stay in the nation legally, and Metal received a extra housing allowance through the Navy. She found its way to the nation in December 2004 on a three-month tourist visa and had been remaining right here illegally considering that the visa expired.
Based on court documents filed by federal prosecutors, Katushynska came across her spouse for the very first time April 26, 2005, after using the coach to Norfolk from ny. These were hitched that time in Norfolk Circuit Court.
She and Metal had been arrested final autumn. Metal’s situation ended up being utilized in l. A., where he lives. These people were caught along side two other people when an undercover federal agent posing as being a groom infiltrated the team.