The United States Department of Justice announced on Wednesday charges against 11 individuals accused of operating a marriage fraud scheme that facilitated the illegal acquisition of permanent residency cards for hundreds of Chinese nationals through sham marriages with Americans for a decade.
The authorities classify the case as one of the largest marriage fraud schemes in the country's history, involving over 1,000 fictitious marriages orchestrated from New York and extending to at least eight states: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, along with connections to China and Vanuatu.
The scheme operated for approximately a decade, from at least 2016 until July 2026, and generated tens of millions of dollars.
The organizers charged up to $100,000 for each residency card managed fraudulently, while the U.S. citizens recruited to enter into the sham marriages received payments of up to $30,000. The recruiters, in turn, earned commissions of up to $5,000 for each American included in the scheme.
To deceive immigration authorities, the accused staged photo sessions in restaurants, opened joint bank and phone accounts, and fabricated immigration documents—including insurance policies and tax returns—to create the impression that the couples were living together as real marriages.
The 11 accused 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.
These individuals are facing charges in the Southern District of New York for conspiracy to commit marriage and immigration fraud, with a maximum penalty of five years, and for conspiracy to facilitate the illegal presence of foreign nationals, with a maximum penalty of ten years. All the defendants were arrested and brought before federal court for the formal reading of charges.
The Attorney General Todd Blanche was emphatic in describing the scale of the scheme: "This plan was not a quick and fleeting operation, but rather a years-long underground industry, involving tens of millions of dollars, aimed at illegally assisting individuals who otherwise would not become, or legally could not become, citizens of the United States."
Blanche also warned about the broader consequences of this type of fraud: "These schemes come at a real cost. They rob our country of the ability to know who should and shouldn't be admitted to the United States."
The case is framed within the tightening of the immigration policy of the Trump administration, which since 2025 has intensified controls over both legal and unauthorized immigration, including the requirement for mandatory in-person interviews for green cards based on marriage and an active review of already granted residencies in search of irregularities.
This is not the first time that networks of this kind have been dismantled in U.S. territory. In 2017, at least 15 people —mostly Cubans— were convicted in South Florida for organizing fraudulent marriages to obtain permanent residency for non-Cuban foreigners, in an operation that involved nearly forty defendants.
The official statement from the Department of Justice indicates that the case was investigated by a team specialized in transnational organized crime, highlighting the scale of the dismantled network.
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