A Las Vegas woman has pleaded guilty in a scheme where she married more than a dozen men to fund her $300,000 gambling habit.
Las Vegas is known as the wedding capital of the world, with marriage laws that make it easy to get hitched.
Jiaying Chen, 33, took advantage of Sin City’s lax marriage laws by tying the knot with men she met online to swindle them out of tens of thousands of dollars, police say.
Chen pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of bigamy and one count of obtaining money under false pretenses more than $100,000, her attorney, Thomas Wells, told The Independent. The Las Vegas Review-Journal first reported on Chen’s plea deal.
Chen’s attorney said her sentencing hearing is scheduled for August 20.
Chen would meet men on social media and quickly suggest getting married, the Review-Journal reported, citing police. She would then reportedly ask for money, often claiming she needed to help a sick family member in China.
“Once Chen received the money she would break all communications with them,” police said.
“Once all communication with Chen stopped, some of the males filed for an annulment with the courts but some also advised they are still married to Chen.”
From March 2019 to May 2024, Chen received seven marriage certificates from the Clark County Marriage License Bureau, the Review-Journal reported, citing an arrest report from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
After being arrested in 2024 on multiple counts of bigamy and theft, Chen was released, and then she vanished, per the outlet.
Chen was reportedly arrested in Las Vegas again last month.
Since her initial arrest, Chen used the alias Vicky Liang to obtain seven more marriage certificates from Clark County, police said.
Authorities said Chen lost more than $300,000 at the Wynn casino on the Las Vegas Strip in the last year, and it “appears the money she has obtained goes to gambling and not relatives overseas.”
One man said Chen asked him for $23,000 to help a sick relative immediately after they wed. Two weeks after receiving the money, Chen told him “she didn’t want to be married anymore to him,” police said.
Another man said she suggested saving for a house, so he gave her about $30,000.
“Once he gave the money to Chen, she stopped talking to him and he couldn’t find her,” police said.
Chen admitted to police in 2024 that she “only conducts the fake marriages in Las Vegas because it is so easy to get married.”
Austin Beaumont, chief deputy district attorney for Clark County, said of the plea deal in the Review-Journal, “It will permit the victims of these crimes to provide restitution reports to the court and, ideally, get reimbursed from this defendant for the money she has taken.”
The Independent has reached out to the district attorney’s office for comment. Chen’s attorney declined to comment further on the case.
