Federal prosecutors have charged 11 people with running what Attorney General Todd Blanche called one of the largest marriage fraud operations in American history, a scheme that allegedly arranged more than 1,000 sham weddings to help Chinese nationals obtain green cards.
A 21-page indictment unsealed Wednesday in the Southern District of New York lays out a sprawling alleged conspiracy that ran from 2016 through 2026, stretching across at least seven U.S. states, the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, and China. Three named defendants, Amy Cheng, Xiao Mei Chan, and Gang Zheng, along with eight others based across New York State allegedly operated what U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald described as a network that generated "tens of millions of dollars."
The case landed on Blanche's desk almost immediately. Wednesday's press conference was his first since being sworn in as attorney general earlier in the week, and he used it to signal that immigration fraud enforcement sits near the top of his agenda.
The mechanics of the alleged scheme were detailed and deliberate. Chinese nationals seeking lawful permanent resident status in the United States allegedly paid facilitators as much as $100,000 to arrange a marriage to a U.S. citizen and pursue a green card application. The American citizens recruited to play the role of spouse received up to $30,000. Recruiters who brought clients into the pipeline allegedly earned commissions of roughly $5,000 per arrangement.
Facilitators marketed the service through word of mouth, social media, and advertising, the Washington Examiner reported. Once a match was made, the defendants allegedly handled every step: hiring officiants and photographers, preparing immigration paperwork, opening joint bank accounts and shared cellphone plans, and coaching the fake couples on how to answer questions during interviews with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Some ceremonies were staged at restaurants. Participants changed into traditional Chinese wedding attire and invited friends and relatives to create the appearance of a genuine celebration. Prosecutors said photographs from these staged events were submitted directly to immigration authorities as supporting evidence for green card applications.
One detail stood out. Blanche cited a prenuptial agreement used by the defendants that stated, in part, that apart from being husband and wife in name, "both parties live independently and must not interfere with each other." A legitimate couple planning a real life together does not typically put that in writing before the wedding. Prosecutors pointed to the agreements as evidence that both sides understood the marriages were fraudulent from the start.
The geographic reach of the alleged operation was broad. The indictment lists marriages arranged in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida, in addition to ceremonies conducted overseas in Vanuatu and China. That kind of geographic spread suggests a deliberate effort to avoid concentrating too many suspicious filings in any single immigration office.
All 11 defendants are expected to make initial appearances in federal court in White Plains, New York. The indictment does not specify whether any are currently in custody.
McDonald said the investigation began after prosecutors stumbled onto a communication in an unrelated case, a thread that eventually unraveled the entire network. He added that investigators are continuing to examine other people connected to the alleged operation, a clear signal that more charges could follow.
One photograph included in the indictment depicts what prosecutors described as a sham marriage ceremony on or about January 15, 2025. The caption identifies two individuals, Anthony Cheng and Erika Johnson, at the center of the image. Their exact roles in the case, and whether Anthony Cheng is related to named defendant Amy Cheng, were not specified in the filing.
That January 2025 date matters. It means the alleged fraud was not some relic prosecutors dug out of old files. If the government's account holds up, the ring was still staging fake weddings this year, a full decade after it allegedly began.
The indictment's stated end date of 2026 is unusual, since charges were announced in what appears to be 2025. Federal conspiracy indictments sometimes project an end date to reflect an ongoing scheme, but prosecutors did not explain the discrepancy publicly.
The scale of the alleged fraud dwarfs most immigration-fraud cases. More than 1,000 sham marriages means more than 1,000 green card applications built on lies, processed by federal employees, and, presumably, approved in at least some cases. Each one represents a slot in the legal immigration system taken from someone who followed the rules.
USCIS conducted interviews with the coached couples, reviewed the staged photographs, and processed the fraudulent paperwork. The indictment raises an uncomfortable question the agency will eventually have to answer: how did a single network push more than a thousand fake applications through the system over ten years without triggering an internal alarm?
That question is not rhetorical. If the allegations are proven, it points to a vulnerability in the immigration vetting process that persisted across two presidential administrations and multiple leadership changes at the Department of Homeland Security.
A system that can be gamed a thousand times by a single ring is a system that needs more than a patch. It needs an overhaul.
