NEW BERN, N.C. - An ex-soldier assigned to 2nd Security Force Assistance Brigade (SFAB) was sentenced today to 18 months in prison and 3 years of supervised release and ordered to pay $110,948.29 in restitution to the U.S. Army. On July 2, 2021, Samuel Manu Agyapong was found guilty by a Federal Jury of theft of government property, tampering with a witness, visa fraud, conspiracy to commit marriage fraud, and aiding and abetting naturalization fraud.
According to court documents and other information presented at trial in February of 2019, a tipster alerted Fort Bragg U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID) that Agyapong, 34, a naturalized U.S. citizen and soldier, was engaged in a sham marriage with Barbara Oppong, a citizen of Ghana who was unlawfully present in the U.S. Agyapong agreed to engage in the sham marriage in order to obtain Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) for him and a lawful permanent resident card, commonly known as a green card, for Oppong. Agyapong and Oppong were married in New York in January 2015.
Thereafter, Agyapong and Oppong submitted fraudulent applications to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) requesting Oppong’s adjustment of status as a lawful permanent resident in the United States, which she received. Based on the fraudulent marriage Agyapong filed for BAH with the U.S. Army and over the course of the scheme he illegally profited over $110,000.
Michael Easley, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Judge Louise W. Flanagan. The investigation of these cases is ongoing and being conducted by Homeland Security Investigations, the Criminal Investigation Detachment at Fort Bragg and the EDNC Document and Benefit Fraud Task Force. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gabriel Diaz prosecuted the case.
Related court documents and information can be found on the website of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina or on PACER by searching for Case No..5:19-CR-00423-FL.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
