SINGAPORE - A Singaporean "groom" would be flown to Vietnam for a wedding photo shoot with his Vietnamese "bride" as part of a ruse to make their "marriage" look genuine.

In some instances, the "groom" was told to meet the "bride" at the Singapore airport in case there were issues with immigration. The "grooms" also changed their NRIC addresses to reflect that of the residences of the "brides".

Some of the couples lived together in the same unit for short periods of time to further cover up the sham unions. This was to allow the "grooms" to familiarise themselves with the place and prove that the marriage was genuine if questioned.

These were the tactics employed by a syndicate in covering up an elaborate web of sham marriages involving six couples and two masterminds. It took investigators from the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) six months to crack the case .

Members of this syndicate were among 53 people convicted last year for sham marriages, a number which has gone up 23.3 per cent from 43 in 2016.

The increase, however, comes after a downward trend that followed an amendment to the Immigration Act in 2012 to criminalise such marriages. In 2013 there were 284 people caught for sham marriages.

Typically, sham marriages are discovered in isolation and involve a "straightforward" transaction between the "couple" and sometimes a marriage broker.

It looked to be the case when one of the "grooms" involved in the syndicate appealed against the repatriation of his "wife".

But ICA looked at the appeal more carefully and realised there werecertain elements of marriage of convenience, said Superintendent (Supt) Maran Subrahmaniyan, 47, who is deputy director of ICA's enforcement division.

Investigations led officers to discover five more marriages of convenience and eventually uncover one of the biggest sham marriages syndicates here.

"We had to connect the dots to find out the exact narrative and that led us to discover that there was more than one couple. It started with just one, but eventually we managed to get the five other (couples) involved," Supt Maran told The Straits Times.



Superintendent Maran Subrahmaniyan, deputy director of Enforcement Division in ICA, whose team busted a sham marriage syndicate in 2017. ST PHOTO: DESMOND WEE



A total of 14 people were part of the syndicate though only 12 - six men and six women - were arrested as one "bride" had been repatriated for other offences and another "bride" left Singapore before ICA investigations commenced in July 2017.

The men from Singapore, aged between 24 and 57, entered into the sham marriages for monetary rewards, while the Vietnamese women, aged between 23 and 34, wanted to prolong their stay in Singapore to work in vice-related jobs, said ICA officers who helped crack the case.

Ten of the syndicate members - including masterminds, Adrian Kin Zheng Keat, a 37-year-old Singaporean, and Vietnamese national, Ho Thi Be Ba, 31 - have been jailed for terms ranging from six to 18 months. Court documents said that Kin and Ho were acquainted through his Vietnamese girlfriend.

Court proceedings for the remaining two - Chua Rui Xiang, and Tran Thi Ngoc Thu, 23 - are ongoing.

Kin, who was unemployed, was involved in the brokering of all six sham unions.

Ho, a beautician, who took part in three of the unions, was also sentenced for harbouring three of the couples at an apartment in Balestier.

Two of the "grooms" in the sham marriages - Chua and Wong Kean Mun Alex - went on to help broker other sham marriages.

The "couples" included Liu Jianwei Andrew and Vo Thi Ngoc Thao; Wong and Le Thi Cam Tien; Kang Ah Hock and Nguyen Thi Bich Dan; Chan Teng Seng and Tran, Choy Yong Hui Elvison and Nguyen Thi Kim Pha; and Chua and 'Ha'.

The men from Singapore were promised between $3,000 and $5,000 for each union, and $100 to $300 for each successful extension of the women's visit passes.

The foreign spouses each paid about $20,000 to the brokers for the marriage.

Related Story Immigration offences down in 2017 but rise in contraband smuggling and sham marriages

As the complicated web differs from traditional marriage of convenience cases, it was a challenge to piece the information together, said Deputy Superintendent (DSP) Liew Shi Xiong, 32.

"In most immigration offences you might have evidence like travel documents or passports. In other kinds of offences you might have witnesses (to testify).

"But for (marriage of convenience) cases we do not have such evidence. So ICA officers put in a lot of effort and had to be innovative in our investigation," said DSP Liew, a lead investigation officer.

He did not elaborate on the "innovative" ways for operational reasons, but said that teamwork was definitely an important factor given the nature of complex cases.

Officers also conducted extensive interviews with family members of the accused, who were sometimes shocked to hear that they were married.

It is also no mean feat to see through the cover stories that the "couples" come up with, said Assistant Superintendent (ASP) Muhammad Izzat Abdul Rahman, 29.

Supt Maran said: "We can't take things at face value. When we do interviews we try to probe and get more info."

ASP Muhammad Izzat, another lead investigator on the case, said that Singaporean spouses who entered sham marriages came from all age groups, and that all were drawn to the crime because of the promise of money.

"The Singaporean spouse is normally in financial difficulty and this is something the arranger (of the sham marriage) picks up on."

Supt Maran said that because marriage was highly sensitive and customary practices, like dowry systems, might come into play, every case is looked at with a "different lens".

"Marriage of convenience is easy to commit, you just need to be of legal marriage age. But it doesn't pay," said Supt Maran.

"We are always there to ensure the marriage is not abused for the purposes of gaining an immigration advantage… You can run, but you can't hide from us, we will get you."