Welcome to Pyramids and Ponzis, where we endeavor to comment on some of the most interesting, important, and sometimes just downright bizarre fraud and white collar crime stories that come across the wire (in this case, “the wire” refers to the all-knowing, all-seeing Internet).
So here is the first one out of our box: a woman in the Bronx has allegedly been married at least 10 times. What makes this extra newsworthy (and of keen interest to investigators) is that, according to an article in the New York Times, the woman doesn’t seem to concern herself with the small detail of properly (legally) ending her previous marriages before taking on each new husband.
At least one of the husbands, a soon-to-be ex, has finally gotten around to divorce proceedings — which might be what brought this odd scenario to light. There isn’t a lot of detail to go on as to what, exactly, Liana Barrientos seems to be doing with her serial weddings spree. However, for her, the case is no laughing matter. The NYT article points out that she is facing felony fraud charges. The fraud allegations stem from her false claim (via a marriage license) that she had not previously been married.
Perhaps she didn’t understand the question on the marriage license. Too bad it didn’t say “How many times have you been married this month?“
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