NEW YORK, Aug. 13 (DC Times Online) — The Justice Department has charged 11 people in federal court in Manhattan with allegedly arranging more than 1,000 sham marriages over more than a decade, in what prosecutors describe as one of the largest marriage-fraud cases in U.S. history.
Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the case at a news conference in Washington, D.C. The alleged operation was based mainly in New York City but reached several other states and countries, according to the indictment summary released by the Justice Department.
The defendants are Amy Cheng, Xiao Mei Chan, Christine Lu, Jing Yan Ye, Xiao Yan Chen, Gang Zheng, Anthony Cheng, Michelle Duenas, Angela Duenas, Sigrid Cetino and Erika Johnson. The indictment charges each with conspiracy to commit marriage fraud and immigration fraud, and conspiracy to encourage the unlawful residence of noncitizens in the United States. The case was brought by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
The charges are accusations. The defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
What are prosecutors accusing the defendants of doing?
The Justice Department says the alleged network operated from at least 2016 through July 2026. Prosecutors say it connected foreign nationals, primarily from China, with U.S. citizens willing to enter marriages that were not genuine so the foreign nationals could seek lawful permanent resident status, commonly known as a green card.
A marriage entered into mainly to evade immigration law is generally referred to as marriage fraud. A genuine marriage can support an immigration application, but federal officials may investigate whether a couple actually built a life together or instead married as part of an agreement for money or immigration benefits.
According to the indictment summary, foreign nationals paid facilitators as much as about $100,000 for a sham marriage and help with the immigration process. U.S. citizens who agreed to participate allegedly received as much as about $30,000, usually in payments tied to stages of a green-card application. Recruiters allegedly received up to about $5,000 for each U.S. citizen they brought into the arrangement.
The alleged marriages took place in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida, as well as overseas in China and Vanuatu, the Justice Department said.
How did the alleged scheme work?
Prosecutors allege that the network used advertising and social media to find participants. The indictment summary also describes efforts to create records that could make a marriage appear legitimate.
Those efforts allegedly included staged wedding photographs or ceremonies, joint bank accounts and other documents. Participants were also allegedly coached on information they might provide during the immigration process.
The Justice Department says the network submitted at least hundreds of fraudulent green-card applications and supporting documents to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS. Prosecutors believe the operation collected tens of millions of dollars from foreign nationals seeking permanent resident status.
The materials released by the department do not say how many of the applications were approved, how many marriages led to green cards or how many people involved in the alleged operation remain unidentified or uncharged.
What charges do the defendants face?
The two-count indictment accuses the defendants of conspiring to commit marriage fraud and immigration fraud. That count carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison if a defendant is convicted.
The second count alleges a conspiracy to encourage the unlawful residence of noncitizens in the United States. It carries a maximum sentence of 10 years if a defendant is convicted.
Those are statutory maximums, not expected sentences. Any punishment would depend on a conviction and the circumstances of each defendant’s case.
The Justice Department has not provided, in the materials cited here, the court’s case number, the name of the assigned judge, individual roles for each defendant or the results of any arraignments. The materials also do not identify defense lawyers’ responses or indicate whether any defendant has entered a plea.
Why is the case being described as unusually large?
The Justice Department says the alleged network arranged more than 1,000 sham marriages and operated across state and international borders for years. Blanche called it “one of the largest marriage fraud schemes charged in United States history.”
U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald said the defendants and their alleged co-conspirators operated a “nationwide and international, multimillion-dollar marriage fraud scheme,” and accused them of using participants to profit from the immigration system.
The department’s description supports calling the alleged operation multimillion-dollar, including its estimate that prosecutors believe it collected tens of millions of dollars. The supplied records do not provide a complete comparison with every prior U.S. marriage-fraud case, so the exact historical ranking cannot be independently established from the materials available.
The prosecution illustrates how marriage-fraud investigations can involve more than a couple seeking immigration benefits. In this case, prosecutors allege a broader network of facilitators, recruiters, document preparers, foreign-national customers and U.S. citizens recruited as spouses. Whether those allegations can be proved will be decided in federal court in the Southern District of New York.
