PHOENIX -- One Valley woman who runs a domestic violence shelter for abused foreign women allegedly helped some foreign brides take advantage of a loophole in U.S. immigration law, according to three area men.

Reed Simon married his Russian wife after a short courtship, and it wasn't long after that he found himself in the middle of a court battle, fighting allegations of abuse.

"My wife got the order making false accusations," he said.

After he spent more than a year defending himself, the charges were dismissed.

Another man, who requested to remain anonymous, said he found himself in a similar situation with his Ukrainian bride.

Most of these foreign women come over on a fiancé visa, which means they have 90 days to get married, and they have to stay married for two years.

Act was meant to protect foreign women against abuse, but some women have been caught manipulating the system by making false allegations of domestic violence.

Both men said Olga Chaikheeva, who runs the Shield Foundation, coached their wives to lie.

"(Chaikheeva)'s an expert at manipulating the system," Simon said.

The Shield Foundation is Chaikheeva's domestic violence shelter for foreign women, but its origins seem murky.

In 2002, the Shield Foundation took over the Allen Frost Family Organization and its nonprofit status.

Kathryn Walling, who served on the board of the Allen Frost Family Organization, said she had never heard of the Shield Foundation, and none of the family members had agreed to allow another organization to take over their family non-profit.

"I would have known about it," Walling said.

Chaikheeva, who refused to answer questions directly and did not respond to numerous other attempts to contact her, knows how to use the U.S. legal system, sources said.

Process server John Tavernaro served her with lawsuits and court papers more than a dozen times in the past six years; in response, Chaikheeva took out two orders of harassment against him.

"She was trying to stop me from being able to server her in the future," Tavernaro said.

Court records show Chaikheeva has taken out orders of harassment in multiple courts across the Valley.

"I sat in court, listening to her tell one judge she wasn't too familiar with the court system, but she had probably filed between 15 - 20 lawsuits in different courts on different levels," Tavernaro said.

Schoolteacher Yefim Toybin is one of people she has taken to court.

Toybin said he met Chaikheeva through a non-profit he started to help Russian immigrants like himself; however, when he stopped working with her, he was threatened.

"She said to me that I will regret this for the rest of my life -- breaking relations with them," Toybin said. "And I thought to myself, 'I've heard these types of threats back in the former Soviet Union.'"

He decided to investigate Chaikheeva and the Shield Foundation on his own, and he published his findings in a Russian newsletter.

Chaikheeva then accused him of breaking into the Shield Foundation office, and he was arrested; however, charges were never filed.

He was also served with multiple orders of harassment.

"It's pretty common to use our judicial system and law enforcement agencies back in the former Soviet Union to solve a personal problem," Toybin said.

Chaikheeva has never been charged with a crime in regards to the Shield Foundation.

Additionally, there is no legislation in place to tighten or change the Violence Against Women Act.