New York woman marries 10 men in a decade

The year 2002 was very busy for a young woman named Liana Kristina Barrientos.

For one thing, she was married on Long Island, on Valentine's Day. For another, she married again, 15 days later, in Rockland County in New York state, to a different man.

Thirteen days after that, while still married to at least two men, she wed yet another, back on Long Island . And then a few weeks later, about when the average bride might still be recovering from her honeymoon, Ms Barrientos was named in a divorce proceeding initiated by a man she married three years before.

By the time 2002 was done, she would marry three more men, each in a different town in New York state. All told, according to state records, she has married 10 men since 1999.

Friday is also going to be busy for Ms Barrientos, who is now 39. She will be arraigned on felony fraud charges in the Bronx. The fraud, Bronx prosecutors say, is that in 2010, for her most recent union, she wrote on her marriage license that she had never been married before.

Furthermore, prosecutors say each marriage after her first was obtained “without benefit of divorce”.

Little more about Ms Barrientos and her matrimonial spree can be said for sure, though much can be speculated.

The Bronx district attorney’s office on Thursday said the federal department of homeland security, which handles some immigration affairs, was “involved” in the case. Agency officials did not respond to emailed questions.

Information on the immigration statuses of her husbands was not immediately available. Marriage applications must include the birth countries of the couple, but the state of New York health department, the repository for those forms, said it was prohibited from giving out the information.

Ms Barrientos’ husbands’ last names, in order, are Gerbril, Allam, Rahman, Koridze, Goktepe, Paharelau, Dzneladze, Rajput, Khorbaladze and Keita. Neither Bronx prosecutors nor officials with the department of homeland security would say whether any of the men face charges.

Ms Barrientos has past convictions for drugs and theft of services.

New York Times