Hezbollah-tied US Marine pleads guilty to immigration/marriage fraud scheme
I mentioned Samar Spinelli, pictured to the left, last month. She’s the former sister-in-law of national security nightmare Nada Prouty, the illegal alien Lebanese fraudster who recently admitted faking a marriage to gain US citizenship that helped her secure jobs with the FBI and CIA–and also confessed to tapping into government databases for secret information on her sister and brother-in-law, both linked to the Middle East terror group Hezbollah.
Spinelli herself has now ‘fessed up. Via Stars and Stripes (hat tip - Dev):
A Marine captain assigned to the Okinawa-based 1st Marine Aircraft Wing pleaded guilty Tuesday to faking a marriage to gain U.S. citizenship.
According to the U.S. Justice Department, Capt. Samar Khalil Nabbou Spinelli, 39, formerly of Lebanon, admitted in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan that she paid a Detroit-area man in 1990 to marry her so she could stay in the U.S. after her student visa expired and eventually become a citizen.
She also admitted to conspiring with two other Lebanese women to commit citizenship fraud and passport fraud, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen J. Murphy.
Spinelli faced a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the conspiracy charge and 10 years and a $250,000 fine for passport fraud, according to a Justice Department announcement. However, under a plea agreement her sentence will be limited to 6 to 12 months in prison and separation from the Marine Corps, according to Murphy’s announcement. She also faces deportation.
A date for sentencing has not been set.
According to court documents, Spinelli entered the United States in 1989 on the student visa and resided in Taylor, Mich. She lived with Elfat El Aouar and Nada Nadim Prouty, two other Lebanese women who also were charged in the conspiracy. She then entered into a fraudulent marriage with the brother of a Michigan man who’d married Prouty.
Pay attention:
According to the U.S. attorney handling the cases, Spinelli was in her second tour of combat in Iraq when she was called back to answer the citizenship fraud charges. She was transferred to Okinawa with her current husband, also a Marine captain, and their two children while the investigation proceeded.
Marine officials on Okinawa say no decision has been made whether to charge Spinelli under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
“The Marine Corps is in contact with the U.S. Attorney’s office and expects to receive evidence regarding the case against Capt. Spinelli,” said spokesman 1st Lt. Garron Garn. “The Marine Corps will determine at a future date what action is appropriate after reviewing the evidence.”
He said Spinelli is a logistics officer.
Court documents say over the years Spinelli vouched for Prouty to immigration officials and federal employers. Spinelli knew that Prouty committed fraud to become a citizen and was ineligible to work as a federal agent, according to the documents.
“With so many honest and hard-working immigrants seeking U.S. citizenship, with all the rights and privileges that confers, we cannot permit those who obtain this precious right by fraud to remain unchallenged,” Murphy is quoted as saying on the U.S. Justice Department Web site.
According to Murphy, others involved in the conspiracy include El Aoura’s fugitive husband, who was charged last year with tax evasion in a scheme to conceal more than $20 million in cash destined to people in Lebanon with ties with Hezbollah. Spinelli has not been named in that case.
This case is a stark illustration of the immigration-national security nexus. Lax enforcement against visa overstayers plus lax enforcement against marriage shams plus lax oversight in our military and intelligence agencies = gaping Jihad Jane loopholes.
I’ll repeat the question I asked when the Prouty plea came down: How many more?
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She doesn’t look like she picks lettuce. What’s she doing here?
How many dead does it take to put a traffic light at a dangerous intersection?
Until a disaster occurs, the they might wake up and say, “oh yea that immigration thing”
I hope the Marines are checking what access she had to classified materials. while they are doing that, they should immediately yank the security clearance of her Marine Capt husband. I’m sure that on his clearance paperwork, he “forgot” to mention the legal status and his associations with his in-laws and bride.
MSM cries that “she should be forgiven because she’s ‘fighting’ the war Americans won’t do” in 3….2….1…..
This should be a Democrat’s cause du jour! The end justifies the means, right?
I haven’t seen anywhere yet where it accuses her of anything but trying to circumvent the process of becoming an American citizen (and conspiring with others to do the same.) Isn’t this what the illegal immigrants are trying to do with their call for amnesty…circumventing the rules?
Let’s apply the law equally, or is this ONE person, more of a threat to our national security than 12-20 million others trying to do the same?
I just hope W is getting all of us to buy them a huge house too. And S-Chip for the kids. And naming a footbath at LAX after her.
Reminds me of the id theft case. While the woman whose identity was stolen was spending so much
time and money to get her life back, the stupid lawyer
for the illegal that stole her identity said, “They are
both victims.”
Making a false official statement is a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. It’s also perjury.
And to think, Scooter Libby was convicted and sentenced to jail for perjury. I can just hear the pleas from CAIR for a pardon for Samar Spinelli in …3…2…1…
She’s just being picked on because….not because what
she did was illegal but because she is from the Middle
East and just came here illegally for a better life and to
do the jobs Americans won’t do. Yadayadayada. Heard
it all before and didn’t believe it then.
From what I have seen in cases split between the States right to prosecute vs. the Militaries right under the UCMJ the military normally works it out with that state. If the state fails to charge then the JAG will prosecute under the UCMJ. Because this case is outside the jurisdiction of the US Courts with the accused being in a foreign country the UCMJ (designed to work these issues outside of normal jurisdiction) would get first crack at her unless she is transferred back to the US to face Federal charges for immigration fraud. One thing that sickens me is the level of classified or operational information compromised by these women.
Citizenship eligibility timelines for non-citizen spouses should be DOUBLE the wait for a standard applicant. Currently, the waiting time for Citizenship is shorter when you have married a US citizen. Also, there is almost no follow-up enforcement to verify the legitimacy of the marriage.
Like someone alluded to above, this one ain’t pickin’ lettuce!
She’s activly contributing to pickin’ off our fighting men and women!!!
6 months, indeed!
Disgusting! Desert Rat, I believe it’s 2 years if a person marries a military member (well that is what it was in 92 when my husband married a Panamanian who left as soon as she got her whole family green cards). I agree the time should be double.
Wonder what else old Cpt. Spinelli has been up to?
Marine? UCMJ all the way! Let them take care of their own on their own terms and I bet it would sort things out in a way that the punishment fit the crime. When I was in the military I would have thought different perhaps but with the recent actions of our liberal courts? She be a Marine, let her newfound brothers decide her fate. Keep the politicians out of it altogether.
How many more? God knows but I’m afraid to hear the answer.
Thanks for this driving this point home Michelle. No one else will.
The lack of determination of the Feds to clean up the immigration fiasco tells me all I need to know. They will do nothing but showboat a few here and a few there until another major attack.
My heart goes out to the victims of violence that should never have happened, vis a vis, the illegals killing up to 25 per day here in the US.
Whether it’s a little nuke from the Middle East or a southern California riot mushrooming into a full-scale attack by corrupt people from the south, the time inevitably draws near. (But I’m being optimistic).
So much of this crap goes back to John Edwards type lawyers who have so twisted and perverted the legal system, people who should and could do something are intimidated to the point of inaction.
Add to that mix, the ACLU, lawyers, MSM
& the Sharpton/Jaskson types, our country is a disaster with far too many ticking time-bombs like this queen in our midst. God have mercy on us for our stupidity.
The organizations that guard us from our enemies are hiring the enemy to watch over us? When I encounter an official from the CIA or FBI, will I be facing a friend or foe?
NO more student visas for middle-easterners. These lying, deceitful people are all Jihadists, waiting for the call to action. We don’t need them here and the risk is too great. Why would they come here if it weren’t to subvert the USA?
I think I may have been stationed with this girl in 1994. The girl I am thinking of was my roommate. If it is the same girl she was in Okinawa only at that time she was enlisted and not an officer. That is crazy.
To be fair, they should punish her the “muslim way”…just slit her throat and hang her by the nearest pole. Until this country understands Islam we have no hope in dealing with them. On another note, allowing muslims in this country to swear an oath into government office with their hand on the “koran” just goes to show how ignorant this country has become…perhaps it never occured to anyone allowing that to happen to take a look at what that book says inside about dealing with those from other religions; namely Judeo-Christian ones. I believe that if they were all forced to be punished by their own “koran’s” directives they may actually consider converting to being a Christian…to save their life of course.