Untitled Document

News Stories - United States 'Career Brides'

One of the "career brides" applied for twenty-seven marriage licences over nineteen years - her husbands came from as far afield as Peru, Ecuador, Pakistan and the Dominican Republic. She's been charged with perjury and fraud - as she claimed on her applications that she'd never been married before.

It's not known how many of the licences resulted in matrimony, nor how many men got Green Cards for their money. This allowed them to stay indefinitely in the United States, to claim benefits like Social Security and to apply to become citizens.

The Manhattan District Attorney says he believes as many as twelve women were involved in the scam, spreading the idea of selling themselves as brides by word of mouth. So far charges have been brought against six of them - for applying for nearly fifty licences between them. One woman clearly forgot that she had had several Nigerian husbands when she too claimed to be a spinster.

- vocabulary:

career brides: a career is the job you do for money so, here, a 'career bride' means someone who earns money for a living by getting married again and again and again;
as far afield as: you say someone has come from 'as far afield as' to emphasis that they have come a very long way
perjury: if you take an oath in a court of law and then lie when giving evidence, you commit perjury; perjury is a legal term
fraud: the crime of gaining money by lying

matrimony: the state of being married; this is a formal word

benefits: money given by a government to people who are poor, ill or unemployed
citizens: people who have full rights to live in a particular country are citizens of that country

scam: an illegal way of making money
word of mouth: if you hear about news or information by 'word of mouth' then you find out about it by someone telling you, rather than by reading about it or hearing about it on the radio or television

spinster: a woman who has never married