Chinese Woman in Vegas Married Six Men, Then Tricked Them into Giving Her Money for ‘Sick Relatives’ She Later Spent on Gambling
A Chinese woman who allegedly ran an elaborate marriage scam out of Nevada is expected to plead guilty a month after she was arrested by authorities.
According to prosecutors, Jiaying Chen, 33, is expected to enter a guilty plea at an upcoming court appearance in Las Vegas, Nevada. She was charged with bigamy and obtaining money under false pretenses in excess of $100,000.
According to an arrest report obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Chen tricked over a dozen men into marrying her and then giving her a significant amount of money.
Between 2019 and 2024, Chen applied for 14 marriage licenses at the Clark County Marriage License Bureau, and seven marriage certificates were issued. Chen is currently married to six different men, as reported by KVVU.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department detectives took Chen into custody on June 4, after they intercepted another scam marriage. Per KVVU, the detectives received a tip that Chen was planning to meet a man at a Las Vegas restaurant to discuss marriage plans.
Following her arrest, police found a U.S. passport and a Nevada driver’s license that had Chen’s picture but the name read “Vicky Liang.” A search for that name matching the information on both documents did not yield any results with the Department of Motor Vehicles. However, a search for the alias yielded several results at the Clark County Marriage License Bureau. The fake documents were provided as identification for eight marriage applications.
According to police, most of those applications were filed between April and June of this year. The Clark County Marriage License Bureau flagged Chen’s applications to police in 2024, and she was arrested. She posted bond and never showed up to court again.
When police spoke to the men Chen married, they all had a similar story to share. They said Chen connected with them on social media and dating apps and after a short time, she suggested they get married. Chen would then 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 get the marriage annuled or simply cease all contact with the victims. One man gave Chen $40,000, another gave her $23,000, and a third gave her $20,000. Another one of Chen’s victims said he and his family saved up to $30,000 after Chen said she wanted to buy a house but didn’t get 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,” according to 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 end up paying 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 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 a $100,000 bond.
