3 close to Calif. shooters arrested in marriage fraud

Associated Press

RIVERSIDE, Calif.

Three people with close family ties to the couple responsible for the San Bernardino terror attack were arrested Thursday in a purported marriage-fraud scheme involving a pair of Russian sisters.

The accused include Syed Raheel Farook. His brother and sister-in-law, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, died in a shootout with police after killing 14 people and wounding 22 others Dec. 2.

Also arrested were Syed Raheel Farook’s wife, Tatiana, and her sister, Mariya Chernykh. Prosecutors say Mariya’s marriage to Enrique Marquez Jr., the only person charged in the shootings, was a sham designed to enable her to obtain legal status in the U.S. after overstaying a visitor visa in 2009.

Marquez confessed the scheme when authorities questioned him about the shootings, and he acknowledged getting $200 a month to marry Chernykh, according to his criminal complaint.

The three people all pleaded not guilty at a court hearing Thursday.