Federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment Wednesday charging eleven people with running what officials call one of the largest marriage fraud operations in American history, a decade-long, New York City-based network that allegedly arranged more than 1,000 sham weddings between Chinese nationals and U.S. citizens in exchange for green cards.
Attorney General Todd Blanche and U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald for the Southern District of New York announced the charges at a news conference, describing a sophisticated criminal enterprise that stretched across multiple states and overseas to countries including Vanuatu and China. The scheme, which ran from at least 2016 through July 2026, allegedly generated tens of millions of dollars.
The operation worked like this: Chinese nationals who wanted green cards paid as much as $100,000 each. U.S. citizens willing to enter bogus marriages collected up to $30,000, paid mostly in installments tied to milestones in the green card application process. Recruiters who found willing American participants earned commissions as high as $5,000 per head. The math is staggering. At more than 1,000 marriages, even conservative estimates put the total revenue well into eight figures.
This was no amateur operation. The network employed facilitators, recruiters, marriage officiants, immigration attorneys, tax preparers, and insurance providers, all working in concert to make each sham union look legitimate on paper. Couples were coached to pass U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services interviews. Staged photographs were taken. Immigration paperwork was prepared and submitted through proper channels, designed to fool federal reviewers.
Then came the tell. As Fox News reported, the couples executed prenuptial agreements that waived their rights to share in each other’s estate upon death, an odd provision for people supposedly entering a lifelong commitment.
Blanche described the mechanics at the news conference:
“After the married couples would visit a local office affiliated with the scheme, sign forms for submission to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, learn about the USCIS interview process to apply for a green card, they would then execute prenuptial agreements, which, not surprisingly, given the allegation these were sham marriages, waived their rights to share in the other’s estate upon death.”
The New York Post reported that one of the fraudulent prenuptial agreements included the line: “Except in the name of husband and wife, both parties live independently and must not interfere with each other.” That language alone tells you everything about the nature of these unions.
Once a foreign national secured a green card, the couple would divorce. The transaction was complete. The American citizen pocketed the cash, the Chinese national got permanent residency, and the facilitators moved on to the next client.
All eleven defendants are described as naturalized U.S. citizens originally from China, with one holding a green card. They range in age from 26 to 72: Amy Cheng, 72; Xiao Mei Chan, 64; Gang Zheng, 61; Christine Lu, 52; Xiao Yan Chen, 48; Anthony Cheng, 47; Erika Johnson, 43; Michelle Duenas, 35; Sigrid Cetino, 32; Jing Yan Ye, 43; and Angela Duenas, 26.
The charges include conspiracy to commit marriage fraud, immigration document fraud, and conspiracy to encourage the unlawful residence of aliens in the United States. Breitbart noted that each defendant faces up to 15 years in prison combined across the two conspiracy charges.
The DOJ released photographs from what it described as sham wedding ceremonies. One image, dated on or about December 17, 2024, depicted Sigrid Cetino alongside an unnamed foreign national. Another, from on or about January 15, 2025, showed Anthony Cheng and Erika Johnson at a ceremony with a foreign national. These weren’t candid snapshots, they were props, staged to create a paper trail for USCIS.
The indictment does not specify which defendants served as facilitators, recruiters, or officiants. Nor does it detail how many green cards were successfully obtained through the scheme, or how many of the alleged 1,000-plus sham marriages investigators have individually confirmed. Those questions remain open as the prosecution moves forward.
This case is not an isolated event. In February, eleven people were charged in a separate alleged marriage fraud scheme, that one involving U.S. military service members and Chinese citizens, orchestrated by a Chinese transnational gang. The pattern suggests organized, well-funded networks exploiting America’s legal immigration system on an industrial scale.
The Trump administration has made immigration fraud enforcement a stated priority, emphasizing stricter USCIS interviews, increased arrests and prosecutions, and heightened scrutiny of immigration documents. This indictment is the latest product of that posture. It joins a string of major fraud indictments across federal agencies in recent months.
Blanche framed the crackdown in direct terms, as AP News reported:
“These schemes have real cost. They rob our country of its ability to know who should be and who should not be allowed in America.”
McDonald, the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, put the financial scope in perspective:
“We believe this network took in tens of millions of dollars over its decade-long operation, making it one of the largest marriage fraud prosecutions in U.S. history.”
He also said authorities are now looking into whether green cards obtained through the scheme will be revoked, a process that could affect hundreds of individuals who used the network’s services. That review is ongoing, and no details on its scope or timeline have been released.
Several questions remain unresolved. The indictment’s stated timeframe, “at least 2016 through July 2026”, raises an obvious issue, since the announcement appears to have been made in 2025. Whether that end date reflects a typographical error, a projected timeline, or some other explanation, prosecutors have not clarified.
The current detention or bail status of the eleven defendants is not publicly known. None have entered pleas as of the announcement. It is also unclear whether the attorneys, tax preparers, and other service providers who allegedly participated in the scheme are among the eleven charged or represent additional targets for future prosecution.
The case is a reminder that visa and immigration fraud schemes often involve elaborate professional networks, not just individual bad actors, and that dismantling them requires sustained investigative effort.
Just The News reported that the scheme operated nationally, with the New York City base serving as a hub for coordinating marriages across the country and abroad. The geographic reach underscores how deeply embedded these networks can become when they operate for a decade without detection.
The broader question for federal authorities is how a fraud operation of this magnitude, more than 1,000 sham marriages, tens of millions of dollars in revenue, a web of facilitators and professionals, ran for roughly ten years before an indictment was unsealed. USCIS processed the applications. Federal reviewers conducted the interviews. The prenuptial agreements waiving spousal inheritance rights sat in government files. The unsealing of this indictment exposes not just the defendants’ alleged conduct but the system’s failure to catch it sooner.
Marriage fraud is not a victimless crime, no matter how transactional it appears on the surface. Every fraudulent green card issued to someone who “would not, or legally could not, otherwise become citizens of the United States”, Blanche’s words, is a green card denied to someone who followed the rules. Every sham application that passes USCIS review erodes the integrity of a system that millions of lawful immigrants depend on.
The defendants allegedly turned the legal immigration process into a commodity for sale, complete with staged photos, coached interviews, and prenups designed to dissolve the moment the paperwork cleared. They treated U.S. citizenship as a product, American citizens as paid accomplices, and federal immigration officers as marks to be fooled.
Blanche called the operation “a deliberate affront to the United States and our laws.” That’s a fair description. But the more uncomfortable truth is that this affront ran for a decade before anyone stopped it.
When a thousand fake marriages can sail through the system undetected, the problem isn’t just the people who committed the fraud. It’s the system that let them.
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