Federal prosecutors say a Massachusetts woman orchestrated a decade-long sham marriage operation designed to help immigrants obtain green cards and, eventually, U.S. citizenship.
Jennifer Gonzalez, a U.S. citizen, allegedly charged as much as $40,000 for each arranged marriage and facilitated up to 20 unions a year, according to Leah Foley, the U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts.
Authorities allege that several of Gonzalez’s female employees also participated by marrying male clients seeking legal status in the United States.
“This conspiracy netted her $6 million during the course of the alleged scam,” Foley said Wednesday at a news conference at Boston’s Moakley Federal Courthouse. Prosecutors said Gonzalez boasted that she invested the alleged proceeds in businesses and real estate in the Dominican Republic, which she repeatedly called “my country.”
U.S. Attorney Leah Foley announces the arrest of six people for allegedly arranging sham marriages over the past decade that netted them millions of dollars during a news conference Oct. 21, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Casey)
Prosecutors say Gonzalez disclosed details of the alleged operation to a cooperating witness during a recorded conversation. Foley said Gonzalez believed the person was living in the country illegally.
During the exchange, Gonzalez, 43, allegedly described Massachusetts as “so special” because it is a sanctuary state where “illegal aliens get a lot of help as an immigrant.”
She also reportedly said she hoped to give each of her children parcels of land in the Dominican Republic that they could own in the future.
“Miss Gonzalez got rich off selling the American dream, all the while investing her money in another country,” Foley said.
According to Foley, Gonzalez told the witness that she stopped arranging fraudulent marriages in late 2024 as President Donald Trump prepared to return to the White House. She allegedly ended the operation altogether in 2025, saying immigration enforcement had become “a little harsh.”
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Photos provided by the Department of Justice show Jessica Tavares, an alleged co-conspirator, marrying an illegal immigrant from Brazil in May 2018. (Department of Justice)
Prosecutors identified Gonzalez as the alleged “ringleader,” while naming several other people as suspected participants in the scheme.
Investigators allege that Gonzalez’s 31-year-old secretary, Amara Pugh, worked alongside Jessica Tavares, 31, Erica Daniels, 29, and Jaylin Hill, 26. The women were allegedly paid to marry Gonzalez’s clients. Prosecutors also say Gonzalez herself entered into a sham marriage with an immigrant who lacked legal status.
Court records released by the Justice Department include photographs from at least two of the alleged marriage ceremonies.
Officials said the women often remained married to the men for several years before divorcing them. In some cases, they allegedly married new clients as soon as one month after the divorce.
A photo provided by the Department of Justice shows Erica Daniels, another alleged co-conspirator, marrying an illegal immigrant from Brazil in August 2024. (Department of Justice)
Foley said the alleged fraud extended beyond the marriage operation. Prosecutors accuse Gonzalez of applying for and collecting SNAP benefits from 2019 through 2026, receiving more than $124,000 from the food assistance program.
“She did not list her income from her sham marriage business and did not list anyone else in her household, not the illegal alien she married and not the father of her children, who she referred to as her husband,” Foley said.
Gonzalez, Pugh, Tavares and two other alleged conspirators were arrested Wednesday morning, according to the Justice Department. Hill was already being held in state prison on a firearms-related conviction.
