Defendant Pleads Guilty in Multimillion-Dollar Green Card Marriage Scheme
A defendant has admitted to participating in a decade-long operation that arranged sham marriages for green cards.
3 reports on this incident · first at Aug 17, 2026, 3:41 a.m. ET
This case is not concluded. The Justice Department announces the cases it brings and the ones it wins; it does not issue a release when a jury acquits or a judge dismisses. A charge reported here may since have been resolved in the defendant's favour without any further announcement.
Earlier reports
Aug 17, 2026, 4:25 a.m. ET
11 Charged in Alleged New York Green Card Marriage Scheme
Authorities on August 12, 2026 announced charges against 11 defendants for participating in a multimillion-dollar scheme to help hundreds of Chinese nationals fraudulently obtain green cards through sham marriages to U.S. citizens.
The case is at the charging stage. Nothing has been decided: the charges are allegations, and each defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
The government alleges the 11 defendants ran a decade-long operation orchestrated in New York. U.S. citizens were paid as much as $30,000 to enter bogus marriages with Chinese nationals seeking lawful permanent resident status, according to the allegations, while the group charged up to $100,000 per green card. The government further alleges the group arranged fake weddings, staged photos to look legitimate and helped immigrants through the permanent status application process.
Authorities believe the group arranged more than 1,000 sham weddings.
The available record does not include any response from the defendants or their lawyers.
Aug 17, 2026, 3:41 a.m. ETFirst report
11 Defendants Charged in Alleged New York Green Card Scheme
On August 12, 2026, authorities announced charges against 11 defendants accused of participating in a multimillion-dollar scheme to help hundreds of Chinese nationals fraudulently obtain green cards through sham marriages to U.S. citizens, according to NBC New York.
The matter stands at the charging stage and has not been decided. No court has tested the government's accusations, and the material this account is drawn from records no outcome — no plea, no trial, no verdict, no sentence. The charges are allegations only, and each of the 11 defendants is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. A reader coming to this later should not read anything below as an established finding.
According to NBC New York, the government alleges the 11 defendants ran a decade-long, New York-orchestrated scheme in which U.S. citizens were paid as much as $30,000 to enter bogus marriages with Chinese nationals seeking lawful permanent resident status. The group charged up to $100,000 per green card, arranged fake weddings, staged photos to look legitimate, and helped immigrants through the permanent status application process, the government alleges. Authorities believe the group arranged more than 1,000 sham weddings.
Each of those assertions is the government's account of what happened, as reported by NBC New York, and none of it has been adjudicated.
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Revision history
- Version 117 Aug 2026, 08:25current
First published.
- Version 117 Aug 2026, 07:41current
First published.
- Version 117 Aug 2026, 08:45current
First published.
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