Four former US Navy service members have pleaded guilty to entering sham marriages with Chinese nationals for cash. The payouts ran as high as $45,000 per person. And the alleged conspirators did not stop at green cards. They tried to bribe staff at Naval Air Station Jacksonville to obtain military identification cards that would grant them access to the base.
A federal indictment unsealed on 4 February in Jacksonville,Florida,charged 11 peoplewith marriage fraud conspiracy and bribery. The alleged operation ran from March 2024 through February 2025. It stretched across Florida, New York, Connecticut and Nevada.
US Attorney Gregory W Kehoe said the conspiracy targeted military personnel by design. The indictment's own language was blunt: recruiters sought US citizens, 'preferably members of the United States armed forces.'
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement classified the network as a Chinese transnational criminal organisation.
At the centre of the alleged ring was Anny Chen, 54, a naturalised US citizen fromChinaliving in New York. Prosecutors said Chen recruited Navy reservist Raymond Zumba to marry a Chinese national, Sha Xie, 38, at a ceremony in Brooklyn in April 2024. She allegedly handed him $10,000 in cash at the wedding,CBS News reported.
The payment plan was staggered. Roughly $10,000 up front for the wedding. About $20,000 when the Chinese spouse obtained a green card. Then, around $5,000 after the divorce went through. Average total: $35,000 per arranged marriage.
Conspirators staged the whole thing. They photographed ceremonies and posed couples together to create the impression of genuine relationships. Those images were submitted to immigration officials alongside the paperwork.
Zumba then became a recruiter himself, pulling other Navy personnel into similar arrangements.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Jacinth Bailey, 25, agreed to the scheme for $45,000. She flew to New York in January 2025, met co-conspirators and married a Chinese national she had never seen before at a courthouse in Connecticut. The group drove to New York afterwards for a staged wedding party, complete with photographs.
That was the routine. Courthouse, photos, cash.
Source: International Business Times UK
