So this Army guy gets married and it turns out...

that it's a sham.

He married a woman from Jamaica for the sole purpose of getting more money from Uncle Sam, in housing and other allowances.  She took part in the scheme because she got to stay in the U.S. legally.  Now the prosecution's sentencing recommendation was ignored and Joshua Priest will spend ten months in federal prison.  He'll also have to pay restitution of around $30,000.  The woman will be sentenced on November 26th.

It appears that the prosecutors recommended just probation in their "plea for leniency" that was filed under seal with the judge and that the judge ignored their recommendation.  Such a recommendation is only made when a defendant has substantially cooperated with the government's case.

Money is a strong motivator.  What if someone offered you the chance to pocket a lot of money, in a almost sure thing, where all you had to do was marry their sibling?  Tempting?  I've been there.  Someone offered me $25,000 to marry her sister.  She would pay for everything.  My trip to that foreign country and my food/lodging while I was there to meet and marry the sister.  The trip home.  The sister's trip.  And after the sister was here, we'd keep the sham going for two years and then divorce.  But I'd get the cash as soon as the sister was here.

Sorry, but I'm not going to prison for $25,000, $25 million or whatever.  It isn't that I have this absolute moral compass that is unbending and unyielding.  I'm still amazed by some of the things people do.  That cabbie who returned the $220,000 he found in the back of his cab in Las Vegas.  I'd have been at least tempted to ponder keeping the money.  I'm almost certain I'd have turned it in, but I'm glad I didn't have to find out.  However, there's a difference between keeping found money and finding money by engaging in a criminal act.

Some will argue that it's not that bad, everyone does it and all those other convenient rationalizations.  Let them take the money and marry the woman.  I see that woman from time to time, and I found out her sister is here.  I didn't ask if they found her a husband to get her into the country.  I don't want to know.

I hope Mr. Priest does his time and returns to college as he plans.  That he has a great life in spite of his conviction.  But the time he will do is time he earned.