Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Norfolk Virginian-Pilot
January 27, 2008 By Tim McGlone, The Virginian-Pilot
NORFOLK--A young Navy enlistee approached a shipmate at a party, federal authorities allege, and told him about an easy way to get extra money: marry a foreign national, and the Navy will pay you an extra $1,000 a month.
Navy officials discovered last year that the scam was widespread. At least 40 people have been arrested and charged in federal and military courts here and in New York with various counts of housing allowance fraud, some involving bogus marriages.
Two couples arrested last week became the latest targets of the investigation.
Kyle T. Louderback, 21, a former Navy petty officer, and three co-defendants were charged Thursday and Friday in a federal indictment with conspiracy, marriage fraud, making false claims and falsifying citizenship papers.
Louderback is accused of entering into a bogus marriage with 34-year-old Hungarian national Rita Bankuti, who has been living in the United States illegally on an expired visa for nearly six years, according to the indictment.
In the fall of 2005, Louderback and Bankuti were married by the Portsmouth marriage commissioner. That November, Louderback applied for and began receiving $1,000 in Navy housing allowance, known as BAH, on top of his regular pay, according to court records.
The couple had claimed to be living together in an apartment on London Street in Portsmouth, and later at a house on Jewell Avenue in Portsmouth. According to the indictment, the two never lived together.
They did open a bank account together, and Louderback had listed Bankuti as the beneficiary of his life insurance. Federal authorities allege that was a ruse to fool immigration officials into thinking the marriage was real. In 2006, the immigration authorities approved Bankuti’s application for permanent resident status.
At a party in 2006, Louderback told a shipmate, Brandon K. Henley, about the scheme, the indictment said .
“Louderback encouraged Henley to marry his wife’s friend so Henley could receive BAH and the friend could remain in the United States,” the indictment said .
In June 2006, Henley married Bankuti’s friend, Monika A. Peto, also from Hungary, at Norfolk Circuit Court. Henley and Peto signed a lease to a Newport News apartment, but Peto never actually lived there, the indictment said. Last April, Peto’s application for permanent residency was approved, based on her marriage.
Louderback, Bankuti and Peto were arrested Thursday and appeared in U.S. District Court, where a magistrate ordered the two Hungarians jailed pending a bond hearing Tuesday. Louderback was released on $5,000 bond pending arraignment. He did not respond to a message left at his house.
Magistrate James E. Bradberry and the federal prosecutor were taken aback when Bankuti told the court that she had $50,000 in the bank. She initially had said she had no money to hire an attorney, but Bradberry denied her request for a court-appointed lawyer after she told him what was in her bank account.
Henley was arrested Friday in Texas. He and Louderback have been discharged from the Navy.
The housing frauds have cost the government hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to court records.
In some cases, sailors have tried to defraud the Navy by claiming a cost of living adjustment for living in high-rent cities.
In one pending case, petty officer Robert Lovelace received $58,000 in additional housing allowance by claiming he lived in New York City when he actually lived in Norfolk, according to an indictment against him.
The investigations here have led to similar arrests in New York.
Seven sailors stationed aboard the Norfolk-based carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower were charged in New York with marriage fraud. Most of them were convicted and sentenced to varying terms of probation and jail time.
The U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment on the investigation, which is continuing. Agents at the Naval Criminal Investigative Service did not return phone calls seeking comment.
January 27, 2008 By Tim McGlone, The Virginian-Pilot
NORFOLK--A young Navy enlistee approached a shipmate at a party, federal authorities allege, and told him about an easy way to get extra money: marry a foreign national, and the Navy will pay you an extra $1,000 a month.
Navy officials discovered last year that the scam was widespread. At least 40 people have been arrested and charged in federal and military courts here and in New York with various counts of housing allowance fraud, some involving bogus marriages.
Two couples arrested last week became the latest targets of the investigation.
Kyle T. Louderback, 21, a former Navy petty officer, and three co-defendants were charged Thursday and Friday in a federal indictment with conspiracy, marriage fraud, making false claims and falsifying citizenship papers.
Louderback is accused of entering into a bogus marriage with 34-year-old Hungarian national Rita Bankuti, who has been living in the United States illegally on an expired visa for nearly six years, according to the indictment.
In the fall of 2005, Louderback and Bankuti were married by the Portsmouth marriage commissioner. That November, Louderback applied for and began receiving $1,000 in Navy housing allowance, known as BAH, on top of his regular pay, according to court records.
The couple had claimed to be living together in an apartment on London Street in Portsmouth, and later at a house on Jewell Avenue in Portsmouth. According to the indictment, the two never lived together.
They did open a bank account together, and Louderback had listed Bankuti as the beneficiary of his life insurance. Federal authorities allege that was a ruse to fool immigration officials into thinking the marriage was real. In 2006, the immigration authorities approved Bankuti’s application for permanent resident status.
At a party in 2006, Louderback told a shipmate, Brandon K. Henley, about the scheme, the indictment said .
“Louderback encouraged Henley to marry his wife’s friend so Henley could receive BAH and the friend could remain in the United States,” the indictment said .
In June 2006, Henley married Bankuti’s friend, Monika A. Peto, also from Hungary, at Norfolk Circuit Court. Henley and Peto signed a lease to a Newport News apartment, but Peto never actually lived there, the indictment said. Last April, Peto’s application for permanent residency was approved, based on her marriage.
Louderback, Bankuti and Peto were arrested Thursday and appeared in U.S. District Court, where a magistrate ordered the two Hungarians jailed pending a bond hearing Tuesday. Louderback was released on $5,000 bond pending arraignment. He did not respond to a message left at his house.
Magistrate James E. Bradberry and the federal prosecutor were taken aback when Bankuti told the court that she had $50,000 in the bank. She initially had said she had no money to hire an attorney, but Bradberry denied her request for a court-appointed lawyer after she told him what was in her bank account.
Henley was arrested Friday in Texas. He and Louderback have been discharged from the Navy.
The housing frauds have cost the government hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to court records.
In some cases, sailors have tried to defraud the Navy by claiming a cost of living adjustment for living in high-rent cities.
In one pending case, petty officer Robert Lovelace received $58,000 in additional housing allowance by claiming he lived in New York City when he actually lived in Norfolk, according to an indictment against him.
The investigations here have led to similar arrests in New York.
Seven sailors stationed aboard the Norfolk-based carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower were charged in New York with marriage fraud. Most of them were convicted and sentenced to varying terms of probation and jail time.
The U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment on the investigation, which is continuing. Agents at the Naval Criminal Investigative Service did not return phone calls seeking comment.