Inset: A fake passport allegedly used by Jiaying Chen (Las Vegas Metro Police Department). Background: The Las Vegas Strip, Las Vegas, NV (Google Maps).
A Chinese woman accused of orchestrating a marriage fraud scheme in Nevada is expected to plead guilty, roughly one month after authorities took her into custody.
Prosecutors say 33-year-old Jiaying Chen is scheduled to enter the plea during an upcoming hearing in Las Vegas. The agreement is expected to lead to convictions on charges of bigamy and obtaining more than $100,000 by false pretenses.
An arrest report obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal alleges Chen persuaded more than a dozen men to marry her and hand over significant amounts of money. Investigators said that from 2019 to 2024, Chen submitted 14 marriage license applications through the Clark County Marriage License Bureau, with seven marriage certificates ultimately issued.
Local Fox affiliate KVVU reported that Chen is currently married to six different men.
Detectives with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department arrested Chen on June 4 after they said they stopped another suspected fraudulent marriage from moving forward. According to KVVU, investigators received a tip that Chen planned to meet a man at a Las Vegas restaurant to talk about getting married.
After Chen was arrested, police said they discovered a U.S. passport and a Nevada driver’s license bearing her photo but issued under the name “Vicky Liang.” Authorities said a search of Department of Motor Vehicles records found no match for that identity based on the information listed on the documents. However, the alias produced multiple results at the Clark County Marriage License Bureau, where police say the fake identification had been used in eight marriage applications.
Investigators said most of those applications were submitted between April and June of this year. The Clark County Marriage License Bureau had previously alerted police to Chen’s applications in 2024, leading to her arrest at the time. She later posted bond but failed to return to court, authorities said.
When police spoke to the men Chen married, they found a pattern: Chen would allegedly connect with men on social media and dating apps, and after a short time, she would suggest getting married. Chen would eventually ask for thousands of dollars, claiming that she wanted to send the money to sick relatives in China, according to the allegations.
After receiving the money, Chen would allegedly either annul the marriage or simply cut off all contact with the husband. One man gave Chen $40,000, another gave her $23,000, and a third gave her $20,000. Another of Chen’s victims said he and his family saved up $30,000 after Chen said she wanted to buy a house. No one got their money back.
One victim told police that two weeks after Chen got her five-figure sum from him, she told him she “didn’t want to be married anymore to him,” per the arrest report.
Not all the men followed through on getting married to Chen, police said when they questioned her in 2024. Chen told police at the time that she would file for marriage licenses, but some of those men did not pay her. Those applications did not yield marriage certificates.
While one victim annulled his marriage to Chen after finding out about her other husbands, some of her most recent victims have no intention of cutting ties with her. Police said one man, whose marriage license was issued on April 23, said he was still married to Chen. Another man, whose license was issued on May 21, gave Chen $30,000 and plans to stay married to her.
Chen also told police that she targeted men in Las Vegas because “it is so easy to get married” there.
According to the arrest report, police said Chen had lost in excess of $300,000 at the Wynn casino, and it “appears the money she has obtained goes to gambling and not relatives overseas.”
Chen is currently in custody at the Clark County Correctional Center, where she is being held on $100,000 bond.
