Two U.S. Navy service members are facing federal fraud charges after accepting thousands of dollars as payment for entering sham marriages with Chinese immigrants, according to federal prosecutors in Florida.
Prosecutors accused Morgan Chambers and Jacinth Bailey, both female members of the Navy, of participating in a scheme in which American citizens would marry Chinese nationals to help them obtain green cards. According to the charging documents, filed on Dec. 23 in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, the plot dated back to September 2024 and involved several other unnamed individuals whom the prosecutors referred to as “conspirators.”
Ms. Chambers and Ms. Bailey are charged with conspiracy to commit marriage fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of five years. Neither has appeared before a judge nor entered a plea. It was not immediately clear which Navy base they belonged to or what titles they held.
They both waived their right to be formally indicted, a move sometimes used to expedite the legal process and obtain a more favorable plea. Lawyers for Ms. Chambers and Ms. Bailey declined to comment on the case on Friday.
The court filing for Ms. Chambers said she was recruited in September 2024 to enter a sham marriage. She was offered $35,000, including $10,000 in upfront cash, another $20,000 when the Chinese national whom she married obtained a green card and then $5,000 when the couple’s divorce was settled. Ms. Bailey was recruited around the same time to enter a sham marriage for a payment of $45,000 in total, the court filing said.
Last year, two men with ties to the Navy were charged in a fraudulent marriage scheme that includes dates and details that matched those in the plot that Ms. Chambers and Ms. Bailey are accused of joining.
Raymond Zumba, a Navy reservist, was arrested in February on suspicion of bribing a public official to get military identification cards that would allow Chinese immigrants onto an Army base. He pleaded guilty to the charge in July. Mr. Zumba, who married a Chinese national, was later accused of recruiting Americans to marry Chinese immigrants for payment.
Brinio Urena, a former U.S. Navy recruiter, was charged in August with entering a sham marriage and recruiting a service member in the scheme. Mr. Urena also pleaded guilty last year. Neither Mr. Zumba nor Mr. Urena was named in the charging documents for Ms. Chambers and Ms. Bailey.
The men, who were also charged in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, are scheduled to appear before judges for sentencing this month.
On Oct. 4, 2024, Ms. Chambers traveled to Las Vegas, where she met her nominal husband for the first time, married him and then accepted $10,000 in cash in a restaurant bathroom, the charging documents said. The same day, Mr. Zumba traveled to Las Vegas to join Mr. Urena and a service member identified in court documents as “Conspirator D” for a sham wedding.
Ms. Bailey was recruited by an unnamed conspirator and flew to New York City on Jan. 1, 2025, where she met her groom. She married the Chinese man the next day in a Connecticut courthouse, prosecutors said.
To make the marriages seem legitimate, the prosecutors said, the newlyweds would take photos together to be used for the immigration application.
Pooja Salhotra covers breaking news across the United States.
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