A Chinese woman has been charged with agreeing to marry as many as 14 men to obtain funds that she gambled away at casinos in Las Vegas.
Jiaying Chen has received 14 marriage certificates from Clark County since 2019. After the shotgun weddings, she asked the men for money, gambled away the funds and then disappeared.
Chen’s attorney, Thomas Wells, said she plans to plead guilty to one count each of bigamy and obtaining money under false pretenses, more than $100,000.
Easy Money in Vegas Fake Marriages, Says Chen
Chen told police she “could make as much as $20,000 from one marriage” and that she “only conducts the fake marriages in Las Vegas because it is so easy to get married,” as reported by the Las Vegas Review Journal.
Authorities first arrested Chen in 2024. At that time, she had submitted 14 marriage applications, resulting in seven certificates being issued. After being released on bond, she disappeared.
Then, last month, police arrested her again. She had switched to applying for marriages under her alias, Vicky Liang. Authorities said she submitted a further eight applications, resulting in another seven marriage certificates.
When arrested in 2024, she told police that she did not marry all the men after submitting applications because “not everyone pays.”
Marry, Steal, Gamble, Repeat
Chen’s marriages followed the same pattern. She met men through social media apps, then soon suggested they get married. She told the men various stories to obtain funds, including that she needed money for her sick family back in China.
“Once Chen received the money, she would break all communications with them,” police said. “Once all communication with Chen stopped, some of the males filed for an annulment with the courts, but some also advised they are still married to Chen.”
One man gave her $40,000 for her sick family, another $23,000, another $20,000, and one more gave $30,000, which she said would be used to buy a house together.
A woman also fell victim to Chen’s scheme, losing $40,000 when the 33-year-old wrote bad checks from a former husband’s bank account.
Police say she lost as much as $300,000 gambling the money away at the Wynn Casino in Las Vegas over the last year alone. It is unclear how much she has lost in total since the scams began in 2019.
UK Marriage Fraudster Jailed for 17 Years
Last year in the UK, a man conducted a similar scheme and was jailed for 17 years. Nigel Baker met victims through dating apps and social media, then convinced them to give him money under false pretenses.
Like Chen, he then gambled away the money, losing over $5 million on Betfair. Baker told the women that he was an online bookie and guaranteed a “no-risk” return on their investment. The women insisted the money was a loan, but it was never returned.
For the bigamy count, Chen faces a prison sentence of 1 to 4 years. For the charge of obtaining money under false pretenses, she could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison. Having fled law enforcement in 2024, judges could dish out a lengthy sentence, but pleading guilty this time is likely to somewhat compensate for that.
