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(MCT) Federal authorities say three Fort Bragg soldiers married Russian women in a scam to boost their housing allowances while obtaining U.S. citizenship for the women.

Two of the men were indicted in July, along with two Russian women and a pair of brothers who arranged the marriages for fees, according to court documents.

All six are accused of marriage fraud.

Court documents allege that brothers Alexander "Sasha" Manin and Pavel "Pasha" Manin matched the soldiers with Russian women living in New York City. The women paid the brothers $3,000 to $5,000.

Wesley Farris, a soldier, and Stephen Schneider, a former soldier, are accused of marrying the women in 2005. Their units and ranks aren't mentioned in court documents.

Federal agents were alerted to the alleged fraud in June 2008 by the Army Criminal Investigations Division. Army CID contacted the Raleigh office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement about the marriage of Anya V. Ivanova and a Fort Bragg soldier named Jason Hawk.

Ivanova was subsequently indicted by a federal grand jury; Hawk was not listed in indictments.

The investigation into Ivanova and Hawk's marriage led agents to the other soldiers, Farris and Schneider, who at one time were in Hawk's unit, according to a criminal complaint.

Hawk told federal agents that Farris was his roommate in the barracks in 2005. Farris told Hawk that he was going to marry a Russian so he could move off post, the complaint says.

Farris then offered to introduce Hawk to Pavel Manin, who could arrange for Hawk to marry a Russian woman, too. Hawk was told he could earn additional basic housing allowance in return for helping the woman file for U.S. citizenship, the complaint says.

Hawk met Ivanova for the first time on Feb. 2, 2006, when he picked her up at a Fayetteville bus stop. The pair were married the next day, and Ivanova immediately returned to New York.

An ICE agent interviewed Schneider at his Fayetteville apartment, the compliant says. Schneider admitted marrying Tatyana Urazova in December 2005 but said he divorced her in October 2008. He has since remarried and is no longer in the Army, court papers say.

While married to the soldiers, the Russian women lived together at the same New York address, according to the complaint.

Ivanova and Farris also are charged with entering into a marriage for the purpose of evading a provision of immigration laws and knowingly subscribing to a false statement under penalty of perjury. Farris' court-appointed lawyer, Todd Conormon of Fayetteville, declined to comment on the case. It was unclear Tuesday whether the other defendants have lawyers.