Individuals involved in the case face allegations of orchestrating marriages between U.S. citizens and Chinese nationals, aiming for benefits such as permanent residency and access to American military installations like NAS Jax.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A federal investigation has led to the indictment of eleven individuals charged with participating in a widespread, multi-state marriage fraud scheme.
At a Jacksonville press conference on Wednesday, Gregory Kehoe, the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida, announced the charges against these individuals for conspiring in marriage fraud. They are accused of enlisting U.S. servicemembers specifically to wed Chinese citizens.
The indictment reveals that this operation began around March 2024. Kehoe detailed how Anny Chen allegedly persuaded Navy reservist Raymond Zumba to engage in a sham marriage with Sha Xie. Following this, Chen and Zumba reportedly continued their efforts to find others willing to marry Chinese nationals.
“Chen facilitated connections for these Chinese nationals,” Kehoe stated. “Being a PRC citizen herself, she knew individuals from China and orchestrated these marriages with Americans, making her the focal point of this operation,” he added.
According to Kehoe, those recruited were promised approximately $35,000 for participating in the fraudulent marriages. The indictment specifies that they were offered $10,000 upon marriage, another $20,000 upon obtaining a green card, and an additional $5,000 once the marriage was dissolved.
Kehoe said the purpose of the scheme was to either obtain green cards or permanent residency for the Chinese nationals, or to obtain access to military facilities. In some instances, the recruits were asked to obtain ‘common access cards’ for their fake spouses so they could enter military bases.
“You are talking about individuals, with potential access to not only the air station here in Jacksonville, but Mayport or any other station throughout the United States,” Kehoe said. “Not just throughout the United States, but throughout the world, and any individual that is just free reign of walking throughout that and happens to be a PRC national is something of great significance to us. So, there was great interest and a tremendous amount of work to get to the bottom of this as quickly as we can.”
Kehoe said the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) was tipped off to the alleged scheme when Zumba tried to bribe someone at Naval Air Station Jacksonville into getting unauthorized common access cards. Zumba offered to pay $3,500 in cash in exchange for the cards.
Of the 11 people who were indicted, six are Chinese nationals and five are U.S. citizens. Those are:
- Anny Chen (54, New York)
- Sha Xie (38, China)
- Linlin Wang (38, China)
- Jiawei Chen (29, China)
- Yafeng Deng (23, New York)
- Hailing Feng (27, New York)
- Kiah Holly (29, Maryland)
- Xionghu Fang (41, China)
- Tao Fan (26, China)
- Jaden Bullion (24, Florida)
- Kin Man Cheok (32, China)
Deng and Holly were active duty Navy at the time. All 11 people are charged with Marriage Fraud Conspiracy. Chen and Wang are also charged with Marriage Fraud. Chen, Wang, and Cheok face a bribery conspiracy charge as well.
Zumba along with Brinio Urena, Morgan Chambers, and Jacinth Bailey, who are former servicemembers in the U.S. Navy, have already pleaded guilty to charges related to the scheme.
Kehoe said they are still investigating this scheme; authorities are still working to learn what type of information the Chinese nationals were hoping to obtain from U.S. military bases and where that information was going.
