Chicago Kenyan Couple pleads guilty to scamming nuns, religious groups
By John Diedrich of the Journal Sentinel

Edward Bosire and Angela Martin-Mulu

Posted: June 29, 2009

A Chicago couple have pleaded guilty to posing as Kenyan refugees and scamming nuns in Wisconsin and elsewhere out of more than $1 million, spending most of it at a casino, according to federal court documents.

Angela Martin-Mulu, 35, and Edward Bosire, 39, each pleaded guilty this month to fraud. The couple are behind bars pending sentencing before U.S. District Judge Charles Clevert in October.

Under federal sentencing guidelines, each faces 33 to 41 months in prison, though Clevert could sentence above or below. Martin-Mulu and Bosire also agreed to pay $984,000 in restitution, according to documents.

Martin-Mulu and Bosire each came to the United States in 1999 under temporary visas and were granted asylum in 2007, according to documents.

The couple targeted monasteries, churches and other religious groups, saying they were homeless siblings who would be killed if they were deported to Kenya, according to documents.

Martin-Mulu said their father was a government official in Kenya who had been assassinated, along with two bodyguards, which was untrue, according to documents.

Besides the Pewaukee monastery, the couple scammed a dozen other religious groups and churches, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Giampietro. That included an order of Illinois nuns who gave them $200,000, he said.

"They basically took advantage of their charitable instincts," Giampietro said.

Martin-Mulu's attorney, Susan Karaskiewicz, said there is more to the story.

"There are definitely mitigating circumstances that will come out at the sentencing hearing," she said.

William Burke, Bosire's attorney, said the roles of the defendants will be examined closely at sentencing. He said his client is remorseful.

"He is humiliated about what he has gotten himself in on," Burke said.

On Christmas 2004, the couple visited a Pewaukee monastery of the Discalced Carmelite nuns, saying they were living in the streets, but didn't ask for money then, the documents said.

A month later, they visited again and started making calls, asking for money to pay rent, medical bills, tuition and an "international fine," according to documents.

At one point, a head nun asked to make payments directly to medical providers, but Martin-Mulu said the doctors would not provide bills because the two were in the country illegally, documents said. The Wisconsin order gave the couple $815,000, which came out of a health fund for the nuns' care.

During the scam, Martin-Mulu and Bosire gambled away $988,000 at a casino, documents said.