Shafran carries on a proud Halloran tradition

Shafran & Krinsky

From the NY Post:

Months after beautiful news anchor Molly Rokasy and Queens power broker Austin Shafran married, she claims, he left her for a state employee who’s steadily risen in the government ranks.

Shafran, a City Council candidate, fell in love with then-news assistant Rokasy after meeting her at a 2006 press conference. Three years later, he proposed to her with a 2.5-carat diamond ring.

Shafran, 33, vowed a lifetime of love to the gorgeous journalist, 30, now the news anchor at The Bronx and Brooklyn’s News 12.

The cable-TV anchorwoman and the politician married at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Aug. 21, 2010, then headed to Times Square for romantic snapshots.

At a lavish reception held at the towering Terrace on the Park in Queens, the Rockettes kicked their long gams to welcome the glittering guests, including state Sens. Malcolm Smith and John Sampson, local Teamsters President Greg Floyd and Chaz Bono.

But Shafran’s commitment didn’t last long, his ex-wife alleged in divorce documents.

Shafran met fellow Democratic operative Jennifer Krinsky when they both went to work on Queens state Sen. Tony Avella’s campaign in the summer of 2010.
By March 2011, just eight months after the nuptials, Shafran, then the spokesman for state Senate Democrats, began working with Krinsky, the office’s new social-media coordinator.

“They were working much closer together,” a political source said.

Krinsky went from making $37,986 annually as a community liaison for state Sen. Liz Krueger to earning $44,980 as the person in charge of new media for the Democrats.

A source said Rokasy discovered lengthy late-night calls between her husband and Krinsky.

In October 2011, Shafran packed his bags and moved out, court papers say. He initiated the divorce.

Shafran says he began dating Krinsky only after the separation.

She didn't live happily ever after

From the NY Post:

Anna Vargas thought she was happily married — she just didn’t know she was “married” to four guys.

The 37-year-old Queens mom has been the victim of an identity-theft nightmare, in which a parade of mysterious creeps arranged fake marriages by using her birth certificate which she lost some 16 years ago.

Vargas had no idea what was going on — until she tried to get married in 2004 and was heartbroken to find her application for a license rejected by the City Clerk’s Office.

She was turned down after records showed she was already been “married” twice in 1996, once to a man from Mexico and once to a man from Ecuador.

It wasn’t clear why the men got married with women using her identity, but often such ID theft involves immigration scams.

Mobsters busted for human smuggling

From NY1:

Immigration and law enforcement officials have arrested and charged 20 people, including five Queens residents and three Brooklyn residents, in connection with a human trafficking operation that allegedly brought women from Russia and Eastern Europe and forced them to dance in various strip clubs in the city.

The charges, which were unveiled today at Federal Plaza in Downtown Manhattan, allege that four members of the Gambino crime family and three members of the Bonnano crime family worked with Russian collaborators to bring the victimized women into the country on work and travel visas.

Once the women were brought into the country, they were forced to work as exotic dancers.

Visa rules forbid employment in adult entertainment.

Authorities conducted raids for evidence early this morning at clubs where the women were allegedly forced to strip, including Cheetah's Gentlemen's Club on 43rd Street in Midtown and Gallagher's in Long Island City, Queens.

Other women were forced to marry men in Binghamton, N.Y.

The 20 defendants are facing varying charges, including visa fraud, marriage fraud, racketeering, extortion and transporting, harboring and inducing the entry of illegal aliens.

Here comes the unwilling bride...

From the Daily News:

Some 300 girls and women in New York State reported being forced into marriage in just two years - and two who refused said they almost paid with their life.

That's according to a new survey of immigrant and women's service providers that sought to quantify the extent of the practice here and in other states.

Advocates say the problem cuts across cultural borders and is so widespread - 3,000 cases nationwide - that the U.S. needs stronger laws to stop it from happening.

"Some women who do say 'No' suffer very dire consequences," said Archana Pyati, a lawyer for the New York City-based Sanctuary for Families.

Forced marriage is different from arranged marriage because it happens without consent and can involve an underage victim.

Some city teens fly to their parents' homeland for what they think is a vacation and wind up stuck in a marriage against their will. Others face beatings or worse if they refuse a wedding here - sometimes by parents who stand to gain financially by the union.

How badly do you want to stay?

The Village Voice explains how illegals fake their weddings and marriages for green cards.

Russians marrying for green cards

From the NY Post:

A slew of Russian immigrants are entering sham marriages in the States to obtain green cards -- and they're doing it in plain sight.

The Russian Advertiser, a Russian-language weekly, has an entire classified-ad section devoted to "delovoy brak," or "business marriages." Last week's issue had 34 ads from women and men hoping to come together in unholy matrimony.

One Sheepshead Bay man said he gets offers all the time from marriage brokers.

He said he knows half a dozen men who married young Russian and Polish women for cash.

A federal law-enforcement source agreed that it's a common practice in certain Eastern European and Russian immigrant neighborhoods.

Weiner getting hitched

From the Daily News:

After years as one of Washington's most eligible bachelors, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Brooklyn, Queens) is engaged to Huma Abedin, a glamorous top aide to Secretary of State Clinton.

A source close to the couple confirmed that Weiner, 44, proposed to Abedin, 33, over Memorial Day weekend.

No date's been set, but the power couple is "thrilled" about the upcoming nuptials, the source said.

I wonder what the answer was?