HOUSTON – A 58-year-old woman has been sentenced to federal prison for her role in at least 40 sham marriages, announced U.S. Attorney Jennifer B. Lowery.
Ashley Yen Nguyen aka Duyen was the group’s ringleader and also often provided a fake wedding album to help people obtain legal permanent resident status. She pleaded guilty Nov. 5, 2020.
Today, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt ordered her to serve 120 months in federal prison to be immediately followed by three years of supervised release. She was also ordered to pay $334,605 in fines.
The court ruled that Nguyen utilized mass-marketing to facilitate the scheme by advertising it through recruiters and Facebook. Nguyen had also claimed to be an attorney who had contacts within U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) so as to make the scheme appear legitimate.
At the hearing, the court heard that Vietnamese nationals would give Nguyen’s group $50,000 to $70,000 to marry a wife or husband in the United States to fraudulently obtain lawful permanent resident status. Nguyen issued routine payments of approximately $200 to those U.S. citizens who acted as recruiters in the fake immigration proceedings. Nguyen also promised the U.S. citizens who participated as spouses between $15,000 and $20,000 in installments, although few ever came close to getting the full amount.
“For more than four years, this individual raked in millions by operating one of the largest marriage fraud conspiracies in U.S….
