Dimitry Fomichev came to the United States in 2003 from his Russian birthplace on a student visa. Three years later he met and married Svetlana Pogosyan. Pogosyan applied for an alien relative visa for Fomichev in 2007, and he applied to adjust his immigration status. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security found the marriage bona fide, approved the visa, and granted Fomichev conditional residence. With the assistance of counsel, Fomichev and Pogosyan petitioned in 2009 to remove the conditions on Fomichev’s residence. They indicated that they shared an address, certified that their petition and evidence were true and correct, and also declared that they married pursuant to California law and did not do so for the purpose of procuring an immigration benefit. They attached copies of their jointly filed tax returns to the petition.
The next year, agents of the Internal Revenue Service approached Pogosyan to inquire about her marriage. The reported opinion does not indicate what caused the IRS to focus on her, but regardless of the cause, she agreed to meet with IRS agents at a coffee shop. The agents asked where she and Fomichev actually lived and about the jointly filed tax returns. When she gave conflicting answers to these questions, the agents cautioned her that lying to federal agents is a felony and that she could owe back taxes and be held culpable for filing false returns.
The agents’ warnings appeared to hit home because Pogosyan stated she wanted to “come clean” and tell the agents the truth. She told them that she married Fomichev so that he could secure U.S. citizenship, and that in exchange for her marrying him, Fomichev would pay her rent. The recorded conversations revealed that Fomichev was concerned about his immigration status and at one point said, “do not set us up, me and you, in regards to the immigration as no one knows, . . . no one can prove anything.”
Pogosyan testified before a federal grand jury in 2011 about the arrangement to which she had agreed: namely, . She also testified that she and Fomichev never lived together and from the beginning they did not intend for the marriage to last more than a couple of years. In 2012 the couple divorced.
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