Missouri Woman Among Those Indicted in Marriage Fraud Case

Federal prosecutors in Kansas City say a Lee’s Summit woman is among three Kenyan nationals indicted in a marriage fraud conspiracy.

The Kansas City Star reports that 35-year-old Nellie Mbote has been charged in a four-count indictment: conspiracy, making false statements, making a false oath related to naturalization and unlawfully procuring citizenship.

The indictment says Mbote and two other people entered into fraudulent marriages arranged by Delmar Dixon of Kansas City. Mbote married in 2009. Prosecutors say Mbote and the others paid Dixon to arrange their marriages, then paid their U.S. citizen spouses $1,000 at the wedding and $100 a month until their permanent residency or U.S. citizenship process was complete.

Dixon was sentenced in 2017 to three years in federal prison for arranging up to 40 fraudulent marriages.