NEW YORK, July 10: Six New York City women who had married illegal immigrants several times over so that the men they wed could stay in the United States were charged with perjury and for falsifying records by the Manhattan district attorney on Wednesday.

The women who swore they had not been married before were issued 43 marriage licences to marry illegal immigrants to enable the men to secure green cards and eventually become US citizens, the district attorney said.

He said the women, all US citizens, lied on a sworn affidavit that requires them to list prior marriages. Perjury is punishable by up to four years in prison.

Morgenthau said he did not know how many green cards were issued as a result of the fake nuptials.

But he said that initially the women charged $1,000 for the “fake marriage.”

However, he told reporters “if a client wanted a full package — marriage licence, green card and other documents — he might pay up to $10,000.”

The men involved in the scheme came from various countries, including Pakistan, India, Peru, Ecuador, Nigeria and the Dominican Republic, according to court papers.

In one case a Manhattan woman had applied for 27 marriage licences between 1984 to 2002 — and that at least a dozen others had seemingly married in numbers that were highly suspicious.

The woman also applied for marriage licences in Florida, the district attorney said, and he believed she might have got licences elsewhere in the New York metropolitan area.

“I figured she should go in the Guinness Book of Records,” he said.

He said the phony marriage cases were referred to his office after marriage licence clerks, seeing the same names and faces, became suspicious. He said he is investigating 12 other “brides” for possible involvement in bogus marriages.

Morgenthau, said he planned to give the information to the FBI, the NYPD Joint Terrorist Task Force and the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services and various United States attorneys.