Charges against renowned musician R. Kelly have revealed that he bribed a government official in 1994 so that he could get documents to marry late singer Aaliyah who was 15 years old at the time.
The official who was given the hefty bribe helped Aaliyah to obtain a fake ID, federal prosecutors have charged.
The ID falsely listed her age as 18 years in order to make the marriage legal as the United States of America law does not allow minors to be married.
Kelly's lawyer Steven Greenberg, in an interview with ABC, claimed that his client did not know that Aaliyah was a minor.
“My understanding is that she did not claim to be 15, and in order to get married, she had to lie about her age, " Steven Greenberg told ABC's 'Good Morning America' programme.
Prosecutors have made the bribery charge against the musician whose real name is Robert Kelly on the strength of evidence collected from the Illinois Department of Human Services and the Illinois secretary of the state.
Aaliyah's debut album named 'Age ain't nothing but a Number' was produced by R. Kelly when she was just 14 years of age.
R. Kelly's legal woes worsened after the release of a highly damaging docuseries in which scores of women alleged that they had been sexually abused by the chart-topping hit-maker.