Viet woman, bogus hubby jailed 6 months
Theresa Tan
The Sunday Times
Tuesday, Jul 30, 2013
SINGAPORE - Vietnamese national Le Thi Thu, 29 (above, on the right), was still in Vietnam when her search for a bogus Singaporean husband began in March this year.
She found her man and married him in April, but both were caught in May and jailed last month.
Thu first contacted a Vietnamese woman known only as Nguyen, who charged her $10,000 to set up a sham marriage. Part of the sum was meant for the man.
On top of the $10,000, Thu would have to pay him $300 each month for acting as a sponsor for her visit pass applications. It is not known what Thu did for a living.
She paid an initial $2,000 and not long after was told she should be at the Registry of Marriages in Singapore in April.
Three days before her date at the registry, she flew here and paid Nguyen the remaining $8,000.
The night she arrived, she was introduced to Ang Nguan Kok (above, on the left), 44, at a Joo Chiat coffee shop. He was a divorced odd-job worker with a son and had agreed to go through with the sham marriage.
He had been approached by another Vietnamese woman, whose identity is unknown, to act as Thu's husband in return for $5,000.
In April, the pair registered their marriage. They did not live together or consummate the union.
In May, they were arrested by Immigration and Checkpoints Authority officers at the ICA Building while applying for a visit pass. Both were sentenced to six months' jail last month.
