Story highlights Federal investigators allege he married six African women

He was getting paid in immigration scheme, complaint says

(CNN) A Massachusetts man married six African women over a decade -- but not for love, federal officials say.

Worcester resident Peter Hicks, 57, wed a series of women from sub-Saharan Africa between 2003 and 2013 to help them obtain legal status in the United States, federal prosecutors said.

According to a criminal complaint, Hicks confessed to investigators that he was paid for the marriages by men who arranged them.

Hicks was charged with one count of marriage fraud this week, according to the complaint unsealed by the US attorney's office Tuesday . It alleges that things started unraveling in 2014, when federal law enforcement agents uncovered evidence that Hicks married six foreign national women and filed for immigration benefits for four of them.

"During a routine interview as part of his application for benefits for a non-citizen spouse, Hicks admitted to marrying three of the women solely to obtain immigration benefits for them," the complaint alleges.

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