Homeless paid thousands in a marriage-for-residency racket

By TONY WALL

Homeless people are being lured off the streets and paid up to $20,000 to marry wealthy Asians wanting to sidestep New Zealand immigration laws.

An Auckland company helps to tidy them up, arranges travel documents and flies them to China and other Asian countries to marry people they have never met. Others go through the marriages of convenience in New Zealand.

The foreign spouses then apply for New Zealand residency.

This week, I infiltrated the organisation arranging the marriages. I was offered a bride, $8000 and a trip to China and was then invited to the wedding of two street-kid brides at Sky City.

It is an offence under the Immigration and Crimes Acts to deliberately deceive the Immigration Service with a false marriage.

For the homeless, the marriages are a way of getting off the street and improving their lives - they are paid thousands and live in relative luxury for at least three months to dupe immigration officials about the authenticity of the marriage.

The firm that arranges the unions is Johnstone Identity Ltd, a registered company set up in May and operating out of the T&G building in central Auckland. It has organised about 20 marriages in the past three months.

The company calls itself a "Global Matchmaker" and its motto is "Let the Game Begins" (sic). It has employed at least one former homeless man, who is understood to have acted as a go-between with other street people.

Companies Office records show the sole director as Yufeng Shan, but the weddings are organised by a consultant, Jack Li.

Mr Li last night denied any wrongdoing, saying his company was simply a matchmaking business and had no involvement in immigration matters. He wanted to help the homeless make new lives.

"They are homeless. Nobody take care of them. They got no motive in life - they got no wife, no reason to work hard ... In New Zealand nobody wants them. We want to give them something good, an opportunity to do good. Their lives will turn and they will become successful."

Last Tuesday, posing as a homeless man, I met Mr Li. He offered to arrange for me to marry a 46-year-old Chinese costume designer, who was prepared to pay me $8000.

She would pay for my airline tickets to China on August 29 and return with me to Auckland, where we would live together as husband and wife for three months at her expense.

I was also a guest at a double wedding ceremony involving two street-kid brides and their Asian grooms at Sky City on Thursday night.

A relative said the couples had met just a week before. Each bride was promised $15,000, half after the ceremony and the remainder in November.

A brother of one of the brides said the women, aged 20 and 21, were from the ACSK (Auckland City Street Kids) gang.

They saw the marriages as a way to improve their lives.

"No one else is going to put food on the table," he said. He was considering getting married himself, and had been offered $10,000.

An aunt of one of the brides said the marriages had proven popular with her whole family.

"All my nieces have done it. There have been four weddings in the past month."

Another member of the wedding party was due to be married in two weeks.

One relative insisted that there was nothing untoward, saying the marriages were "forever".

The Weekend Herald learned of the scam during an investigation into homelessness in Auckland. One street dweller said he knew of two homeless men who had flown to Asia to get married and were now living in homes with their brides. One was paid $15,000 and the other $20,000.

It is understood that street people with criminal convictions that prevent them travelling overseas get married in New Zealand.

One source said a homeless man had deposited the money in his TAB account so as not to alert welfare authorities.

An Auckland City Mission worker, Wilf Holt, said he was concerned that the scheme exploited the homeless.

"Someone's making money out of this ... so it's a bit like prostitution in that way."

He was worried about what would become of the homeless after the spouse gained residency.

"They could be back on the streets within six or seven months because they have no ability to spend the money wisely. It's just too overwhelming an amount."

When I confronted Mr Li last night, he said his firm was an introduction service which helped smooth the path to marriage.

"We're helping people to get married who wouldn't get married otherwise. If people want to marry each other, we are not forcing them."

He did not find it unusual that money was changing hands. "Money is a Chinese custom. Everybody who get married give money as a respect."

He said his cut was "not much ... only about one or two grand".

Mr Li denied that the marriages were an immigration scam. In some cases, the couple settled in China, with the New Zealand spouse learning Chinese.

Asked if the marriage could be genuine when the couple had known each other only a week, Mr Li said: "It doesn't matter, even if you know a person a day ... you love them very much, you want to marry them - sometimes you find the right person.

"They love each other - if not, they would not get married. We're not doing anything wrong. We're helping people."

A spokesman for the Immigration Service said that if a deliberate intention to deceive the service could be proven, the parties could be charged under the Immigration Act. The maximum penalty is three months' jail or a $5000 fine.

A company that was arranging sham marriages could face prosecution for fraud under the Crimes Act.

How the marriage racket works

Fake roses for a wilting wedding


* tony_wall@nzherald.co.nz