An American man who married six African women to help them get green cards to live and work in the United States and take care of their impoverished families back home has escaped jail time.
Why it matters: Slave trade, which lasted hundreds of years, devastated the African continent, especially sub-Saharan Africa, and sentenced hundreds of millions of people to a life of poverty and hopelessness. Because of the brutal slave trade, colonialism and neo-colonialism perpetrated by the West, many Africans try all they can to escape hunger, poverty and hell on earth.
Peter Hicks, 58, from Massachusetts was sentenced to two years probation instead of 18 years behind bars as the government had requested.
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The Telegram & Gazette of Worcester reported that Hicks pleaded guilty to a count of marriage fraud in September because the statute of limitations had run out on the other five.
Prosecutors said from 2003 to 2013, Hicks entered into sham marriages with sub-Saharan African women to obtain green cards for them.
Authorities said he divorced at least three of his wives – two in an eight-day period in 2011.
At one point, he was still married to one woman when he married another, a government statement said, according to Fox News.
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