Sister-in-Law of San Bernardino Terrorist Gets 3 Years Probation in Immigration Fraud Case

Corona resident Tatiana Farook, the sister-in-law of the male 2015 San Bernardino terrorist attacker, was sentenced to three years probation Friday, Feb. 5, for her role in an immigration and marriage fraud scheme discovered during the probe into the shooting that killed 14 people and wounded 22 others.

She had pleaded guilty in 2017 to one felony count of conspiracy to commit immigration fraud in U.S. District Court in Riverside.

Prosecutors had sought three years probation, three months home confinement and 112 hours of community service before she was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Jesus G. Bernal.

Farook’s husband, Syed Raheel Farook, was previously sentenced to three years probation for participating in the same scheme that attempted to help Tatiana’s Russian-born sister gain permanent U.S. residency.

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Raheel Farook’s brother, Syed Rizwan Farook, and Rizwan’s wife Tashfeen Malik, laid siege to a San Bernardino County Division of Environmental Health holiday party and training session at the Inland Regional Center on Dec. 2, 2015. Rizwan Farook was a restaurant and pool inspector for the county.

Investigators, casting a wide net during their probe, discovered that Tatiana Farook’s sister, Mariya Chernykh, had overstayed her three-month visa in 2009 when both sisters arrived from Russia and Chernykh schemed with the Farooks to remain in the U.S.

She supposedly married family friend Enrique Marquez Jr. of Riverside, yet lived with her boyfriend and child in Ontario. Marquez was paid $200 a month to go along with the ruse that included staging wedding reception photos, writing up a phony legal agreement showing Marquez and Chernykh lived at the Farooks’ home in Corona and buying a $50 wedding ring for Chernykh.

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