Syed Raheel Farook, whose brother and sister-in-law killed 14 people in the 2015 terrorist attack in San Bernardino, was sentenced Monday to three years of probation for his role in a marriage scheme that allowed his wife’s sister to remain in the United States.
The bogus marriage was between Mariya Chernykh, a Russian citizen, and Enrique Marquez Jr., who emerged as a key figure in the terror attack . Marquez was sentenced last month to 20 years in prison for providing Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife with the two assault rifles used in the attack, among other crimes.
After marrying on Nov. 29, 2014, Marquez petitioned the U.S. government to grant Chernykh legal residency, according to an FBI agent’s affidavit filed in Marquez’s case. Marquez told agents investigating the San Bernardino attack that he’d agreed to pose as Chernykh’s husband in exchange for $200 a month, which Chernykh deposited in a joint bank account, the affidavit said. Syed Raheel Farook and his wife, Tatiana, signed a certificate attesting that they’d witnessed the marriage, an indictment says.
Marquez and Chernykh posed together for photographs, and Farook submitted affidavits saying he would support the couple financially. Farook also created a phony, backdated lease that purported to show Marquez and Chernykh had lived together for a year, according to the indictment.
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