New sentencing dates have been set for two Russian sisters who admitted their roles in a fake-marriage scheme involving a friend of Syed Rizwan Farook, who with his wife killed 14 people and wounded 22 others in the Dec. 2, 2015 San Bernardino terror attack.
The sisters, Tatiana Farook and Mariya Chernykh, were to be sentenced separately in Riverside federal court during the next 2 1/2 weeks, but are now scheduled to be sentenced in the spring.
The bogus marriage of Chernykh to Enrique Marquez Jr. was a scheme to prevent Chernykh’s deportation, authorities said. Marquez was the illegal straw buyer of two AR-15-style rifles Syed Rizwan Farook and wife Tashfeen Malik used in the attack, the FBI said.
Tatiana Farook, sister-in-law of Syed Rizwan Farook, now faces an April 15, 2019 sentencing date for her guilty plea in February 2017 to one felony count of conspiracy to commit immigration fraud. She had been scheduled for sentencing Oct. 22.
The sentencing date for Chernykh was moved from Nov. 5 to May 20, 2019. She pleaded guilty to conspiracy, perjury and two counts of making false statements in January 2017.
Syed Raheel Farook, the husband of Tatiana and older brother of Rizwan, faces a March 25, 2019 sentencing for his role in the sham marriage plot. He has pleaded to one count of conspiracy to commit immigration fraud. His sentencing date was changed last month, from Sept. 24.
The government did not oppose the delays. All three defendants said they needed more time to prepare their sentencing position papers.
Marquez, the two sisters, and Syed Raheel Farook were not involved in the San Bernardino attack, authorities have said. The phony marriage scheme unraveled during the federal investigation of the mass shooting.
The three admitted their roles in faking the marriage of Chernykh to Marquez, of Riverside, who awaits a sentencing date on his February 2017 plea of guilty to conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and to making false statements during the purchase of a firearm.
The November 2014 fake-marriage scheme, federal authorities said, was to obtain permanent U.S. residency for Chernykh, a Russian citizen who had overstayed her visa.
Efforts to gild the phony marriage included the Farooks signing a document claiming to have witnessed a marriage ceremony that never happened; taking photos of Marquez and Chernykh at what was described as a wedding reception; and creating a fake lease that showed the couple lived together, when in fact they lived apart, authorities said.
Marquez also is charged in the fake-marriage case, but those counts are expected to be dismissed when he is sentenced. An FBI affidavit said Marquez was paid $200 a month to participate in the scheme.
Federal agents said it was Marquez who in 2011 and 2012 bought two assault-style rifles and falsely stated the weapons were for him, when the guns were for Syed Rizwan Farook.
Farook and wife Malik used them in the mass shooting at the Inland Regional Center three years later. The Redlands couple died in a shootout with law enforcement hours after the attack.
Marquez also had purchased explosive powder in 2012 that was used in a device left at the attack scene. It failed to detonate.
Marquez originally had purchased the rifles and powder for two terror attacks, on the 91 Freeway and the campus of Riverside City College, that he had planned with Syed Rizwan Farook, a friend and next-door neighbor, an FBI affidavit said.
Those plots were not carried out, and Marquez grew distant. But the guns and explosive powder stayed with Rizwan Farook, and Marquez stayed silent, authorities said. Marquez did not know about the San Bernardino attack plans, the government said.
Chernykh, who has an American-born daughter, also is fighting deportation, and had been in custody at the Adelanto Detention Facility.
Many of the filings in her separate federal court habeas corpus alien detainee petition case are sealed, but a document from May 22, 2017 indicates she is out of detention as the case is litigated, and was fitted with tracking anklets from both the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Pretrial Services.
