Jodian Stephenson, the owner of the now-defunct consultancy Immigration and Legal Services LLC in Bridgeport, was sentenced to six months of imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release for arranging fraudulent marriages so that non-U.S. citizens would receive U.S. immigration benefits.
Stephenson, who also went by the name Jodian Gordon, was part of a conspiracy that arranged 28 sham marriages between U.S. citizens and non-citizens for the purpose of helping the latter apply for and obtain lawful permanent residence status, more commonly known as a green card.
One of the marriages involved Stephenson, who is a citizen of Jamaica, and a U.S. citizen. For the others, she helped the couples obtain a marriage license and arrange their marriage ceremonies, and coached them on how to make their marriage appear to be genuine ”“ even though the couples did not live together and never intended to stay married.
Stephenson also prepared several immigration documents needed as part of the non-citizen”™s green card application. In some cases, Stephenson or her assistants prepared other false documents for the couple, such as a false lease that portrayed the couple as living in a genuine union.
Stephenson charged between $17,000 and $20,000 to complete that process for a non-citizen, and the citizen spouse received between $2,000 and $4,000 for his or her participation.
The conspiracy ended when Stephenson offered to arrange a sham marriage for an undercover federal law enforcement agent for a proposed fee of $20,000.
A total of 10 individuals, including U.S. citizens who entered into one or more fraudulent marriages with non-citizens, have been charged with related offenses as a result of this investigation, and eight have pleaded guilty. Removal proceedings either began or will commence against the individuals whose green card applications were found to have been based on the Stephenson-arranged marriages.
Stephenson was arrested in June 2018 and pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in August 2019. She has been free on a $250,000 bond and is required to report to prison on October 25.
Stephenson will face immigration proceedings when she completes her prison term.
