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Jeffrey Epstein allegedly arranged a sham same-sex marriage for his Belarusian dentist girlfriend so she could remain in the US after overstaying her student visa, according to a trove of emails released by the Department of Justice.
Epstein took advantage of same-sex marriage laws in New York City so Karyna Shuliak, who was the last woman to speak to the pedophile before his 2019 suicide, wouldn’t be deported, the New York Times reported.
Epstein helped Shuliak, now 37, gain admission to Columbia University, which is prestigious for dentistry, but at the time of her 2012 application, the student visa she had used to migrate to the US in 2010 had expired.
“I think its [sic] time you found an American girlfriend,” the financier wrote to Shuliak in a March 2013 email, according to The Times.
“Same sex marriage will be the fastes [sic] way to green card. By far.”
Epstein reportedly selected a 30-year-old Minnesotan woman, who was an assistant, for Shuliak to wed.
Shuliak and the woman, whose name has been redacted, legally married at The Office of the City Clerk in New York on Oct. 9 2013. Same-sex marriages have been legal in New York City since July 24 2011.
Shuliak’s green card application was processed and she became a citizen in May 2018.
Shuliak and her wife divorced the following year – and a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform report claimed the spouse had been “forced” into the marriage by Epstein.
She was “shocked to learn after the ceremony that Karyna’s deportation hearing was going to happen just a few days later,” the report said.
The marriage was described as “illusory,” and the committee concluded it was apparently arranged to give “Shuliak a legal basis to continue residing in the United States.”
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform report, however, did not recommend any legal challenge to her citizenship.
Shuliak, who graduated from Columbia in 2015, was Epstein’s last-known girlfriend, and she was set to inherit $100 million, a 32-carat engagement ring, and the financier’s properties, including his notorious “Pedo Island” in the will he signed two days before his death, The Times reported.
Shuliak, who first met Epstein in New York in 2011 at age 21, was among at least 44 beneficiaries the disgraced financier planned to leave an estimated $288 million fortune.
The will also called for her to get Zorro Ranch in New Mexico and other properties in Paris and Palm Beach.
Other planned beneficiaries included convicted Epstein madam Ghislaine Maxwell and his brother Mark, who were both supposed to get $10 million.
Shuliak has not been accused of any wrongdoing, nor has she been identified as an Epstein victim.
The day before Epstein was found dead in his Manhattan cell, he reportedly told Shuliak the federal sex crimes he was accused of would take longer to resolve.
He also told her “to be strong,” her lawyer Maurice Sercarz claimed.
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