Fake Wedding Brings Felony Charges

A Binghamton man is facing charges after he allegedly filed false documents and held a fake wedding with a woman from Ukraine. John Polkowski is being charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, a felony. Polkowski and the woman are accused of conspiring to fake their 2008 marriage and lying on federal immigration paperwork, saying they lived together in a Brooklyn apartment when they did not. Polkowski says he met a woman in Greene who brokered the phony marriage, promising him $10,000 if he married a woman he had never met. He says that he only ever received $2,500 for the arrangement. He was arrested in Binghamton and waived his right to a preliminary hearing before being released. The woman from Ukraine is listed as a fugitive.