Pennsylvania, USA – Liberia’s Speaker has been officially and permanently barred from obtaining legal status in America. A bombshell decision notice from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), obtained by this publication, details a multi-year pattern of deceit by Richard Nagbe Koon, the current Speaker of the Liberian House of Representatives, concluding his prior marriage was a sham “entered into solely for immigration purposes.”
The 24-page denial order, issued to a later U.S. citizen petitioner, Christiana Tue, meticulously dismantles Koon’s immigration history, painting a picture of serial fraud, contradictory testimonies, and a brazen attempt to use American citizens as stepping stones for a green card. According to the federal document, Koon’s journey into U.S. immigration fraud began shortly after his arrival. While still legally married to his first wife, Angeline Koon, in Liberia, Koon allegedly divorced her in June 2015. Merely seven weeks later, on July 29, 2015, he married U.S. citizen Cecelia Katherine Kpor in Delaware. A spousal visa petition was filed just six weeks after that.
However, USCIS investigators uncovered that this “marriage” was a facade. The agency found “only limited evidence of cohabitation at a common address, no evidence of financial commingling, and no evidence of joint legal or financial obligations.” Instead, evidence suggested Koon was, in fact, residing with another woman, Giflee Faikai, with whom he shares at least one child, at locations in Maryland, West Virginia, and Rhode Island throughout his supposed marriage to Kpor.
The House of Cards Collapses
Koon’s first marriage-based green card application was ultimately denied. The scheme hit a critical point when Koon and his first U.S. citizen petitioner, Kpor, were scheduled for an interview in June 2021. Koon appeared alone, testifying his “wife” was on her way. She never arrived. Unbeknownst to the immigration officer, the couple had allegedly divorced in Liberia two months prior—a fact Koon concealed.
The denial notice states, “The Beneficiary did not inform USCIS of his divorce and testified that the first Petitioner was on her way… This discrepancy cast significant doubt on the claim that the Beneficiary and the first Petitioner had ever resided together in a bona fide marriage.”
A Second Attempt and a Permanent Ban
Undeterred, Koon moved quickly. While still legally tied to his first immigration marriage, he wed a second U.S. citizen, Christiana Tue, in August 2021—the same petitioner who received this denial. He and Tue had already been living together since at least June 2018, a period during which he was still petitioning for permanent residency based on his first marriage.
In a conflict of interest, the USCIS file reveals that Tue herself wrote two notarized affidavits in 2018 and 2019, attesting to the bona fides of Koon’s first marriage to Kpor—while she and Koon were cohabitating. The agency notes this “significant derogatory fact remains entirely unexplained.”
“Substantial and Probative Evidence” of Fraud
USCIS’s investigation went deeper, uncovering a web of connections with Giflee Faikai that obliterated Koon’s claim they were merely “roommates.” Records show:
· Koon and Faikai arrived in the United States together on the same flight in May 2015.
· Faikai listed Koon as her private financial sponsor for her U.S. education.
· They shared multiple addresses, including the same Maryland address Koon used and the West Virginia address of his first U.S. citizen wife.
· On a visa application for a child, Koon listed Faikai as the mother, directly contradicting his sworn statements.
The agency concluded, “USCIS believes that Ms. Faikai and the Beneficiary were the young black couple residing with the first Petitioner… and that the Beneficiary and Ms. Faikai moved together to Rhode Island to continue their relationship.” The Final Judgment
The decision is unequivocal and carries a lifetime consequence. Citing section 204(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, USCIS ruled: “Since the Beneficiary’s marriage to the first Petitioner was a sham entered into solely for immigration purposes, approval of your visa petition filed on his behalf is barred.”
This permanent ban prevents Richard Nagbe Koon from ever obtaining U.S. lawful permanent residency through any family-based petition. The ruling portrays Liberia’s third-highest constitutional official not as a statesman, but as a calculating individual who leveraged personal relationships and attempted to systematically deceive the United States government for personal gain. In a disclosure aimed at refuting prior allegations, the office of House Speaker Richard Koon has confirmed the Speaker entered into a fraudulent marriage with his biological sister to secure U.S. immigration benefits. The confirmation came via a detailed statement from the Speaker’s official spokesperson, V Vehzelee Sumo, posted to his personal Facebook page.
The post reads “On the Spoon Talk, she lied that she filed in for Richard Koon to go to the US since they were in a sexual relationship. This is false! Richard Koon traveled to the US on a World Bank faculty exchange program between the University of Liberia and the University of Michigan. Because of the nature of the program, Richard Koon was allowed to carry his fiancee, Gifty Feika. They were both stopping at his sister Cecelia’s residence. While there, she demanded that they pay rental fees for her apartment – which Richard Koon did, in the tone of $1200 monthly. It was while on this program that Cecelia suggested to her brother Richard that she could use her status as a military personnel to file for his citizenship if he could agree to purport as her husband in exchange for something.
What was it? Cecelia demanded an upfront payment of US$35,000, and part of the Richard Koon estate in Virginia, Liberia. In addition, she would also file for his children to go to the US. Needing status, Richard Koon agreed. Cecelia got the paperwork done without getting Richard Koon involved in a single part of the process. She brought him marriage documents with his signature forged on them and told him that he would be granted the temporary two-year green card holder status. In partial fulfilment of his side of the bargain, Richard Koon gave Cecelia US$10,000 and placed a portion of the estate under her supervision so that she could be collecting the rental fees.She also attempted sending for his kids but none of those processes materialized.” Vehzelee Sumo concluded.