A woman who authorities say married more than a dozen men in Las Vegas to fund her gambling has agreed to plead guilty to two felonies.
Jiaying Chen, 33, waived her right to a preliminary hearing during an appearance before Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Rebecca Saxe on Tuesday.
Chen’s attorney, Thomas Wells, said she plans to plead guilty later this week to one count each of bigamy and obtaining money under false pretenses more than $100,000.
“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,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Austin Beaumont said of the plea deal.
Chen was first arrested by the Metropolitan Police Department in 2024 on multiple counts of bigamy and theft. An arrest report indicates that from March 2019 to May 2024, Chen submitted 14 marriage applications to the Clark County Marriage License Bureau, resulting in seven marriage certificates being issued. She was released after posting bond in 2024, then disappeared.
She was arrested again in Las Vegas last month. Police said she was using the alias Vicky Liang and had submitted eight marriage license applications, resulting in seven marriage certificates issued in Clark County.
She was found in possession of a fraudulent passport and fraudulent Nevada driver’s license at the time of her most recent arrest, according to police.
Police said Chen was able to get married multiple times by using an alias, fraudulent identifications and repeatedly lying on applications. The Clark County Marriage License Bureau first reported her to police in 2024.
Chen, police said, would meet men on social media apps and soon suggest they get married. She would ultimately ask for money, often to help a purported sick family member in China in a scheme that police said exploited Chinese cultural traditions.
“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.”
In the 2024 case, Chen was also accused of swindling a woman out of $40,000 by writing bad checks from a former husband’s bank account.
One man told police he gave Chen $40,000 to help a sick family member in China and was never repaid. Another said that immediately after he married Chen, she asked for $23,000 to help a sick family member. Two weeks after giving her the money, police said, Chen told him “she didn’t want to be married anymore to him.”
Another man told a similar story of losing $20,000. Yet another said he dated Chen for a year before marrying her, police said. She suggested saving for a house, so he and his family collected about $30,000, which he gave to Chen.
“Once he gave the money to Chen, she stopped talking to him and he couldn’t find her,” police said.
When Chen was arrested in 2024 she was asked by detectives why she doesn’t always marry the men that she’d submitted marriage applications for.
“She stated not everyone pays which is why they don’t get the marriage certificate,” Chen was quoted as saying.
Chen told police she “could make as much as $20,000 from one marriage” and that she “only conducts the fake marriages in Las Vegas because it is so easy to get married.”
Police also examined Chen’s gambling expenditures.
“It has been determined Chen has lost over $300,000 at the Wynn casino in the last year and (it) appears the money she has obtained goes to gambling and not relatives overseas,” police said.
Contact Glenn Puit at gpuit@reviewjournal.com.
