Man Accused of Fraudulent Marriages

James A. Kyem married nine times in 11 years, pledging himself to immigrant women across the Washington area and beyond -- not for love, prosecutors said yesterday, but for money.

According to a grand jury indictment returned at U.S. District Court in Baltimore, the Frederick resident married women, for a fee, in Prince George's and Prince William counties and elsewhere. The women were then able to become lawful permanent residents.

Kyem, 52, is a naturalized U.S. citizen, the indictment says. He was born in Ghana and obtained his citizenship through a 1984 marriage to a woman who was a naturalized citizen, it says. He was married to her still when, in 1996, he entered into the first of the nine fraudulent marriages, it says.

Although he divorced his wife from the 1984 marriage in 1997, federal authorities did not say whether Kyem was married to his next nine wives simultaneously or divorced each before marrying the next.

Kyem was charged with marriage and passport fraud and other offenses. He is being detained as a flight risk. His attorney, Paula Xinis, a public defender, declined to comment.

A spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein referred questions about the wives to immigration authorities.

Marc Raimondi, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said he had no immediate information about Kyem's case but said the penalty for becoming naturalized through fraud is denaturalization.