Between March 2019 and May 2024, Jiaying Chen, 33, submitted 14 marriage applications to the Clark County Marriage License Bureau. She ended up obtaining seven marriage certificates, but it turns out that was all part of a ruse to get unsuspecting men to fund her gambling lifestyle in Las Vegas. She recently waived her right to a preliminary hearing and agreed to plead guilty to two felonies.
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Chen’s attorney, Thomas Wells, said his client will plead guilty to one count of bigamy later this week. Chief Deputy District Attorney Austin Beaumont welcomed the plea, saying, “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.”
She used multiple aliases
Chen was first arrested in 2024 after authorities noticed discrepancies in the marriage certificates she had been issued. She then posted bail and disappeared from the state. Authorities were unable to arrest her again until June 2026, when she was using the alias Vicky Liang.
In the time since her release and adoption of a new alias, she allegedly continued her run of fraud and submitted eight more marriage license applications. She also had a fake passport and fake driver’s license. She used different identities at the Clark County Marriage License Bureau, routinely using them to apply for marriage certificates.
Authorities accuse her of meeting men on social media and, when her victims believed there was a connection, Chen would suggest marriage using one of her many identities. This is believed to have been a ploy to make the victims more trusting and willing to make long-term financial arrangements with her.
Chen would then allegedly tell these men that she had a sick relative back in China or pull them into a story about Chinese customs that required money. She is accused of obtaining more than $100,000 from nearly a dozen victims. Police said, “Once Chen received the money she would break all communications with them.” They continued, “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.”
However, it wasn’t just men who were victimized by Chen. She is also accused of using bad checks from a former husband to scam a woman out of $40,000. One man gave testimony showing just how short these “marriages” would last. He claimed that after he gave Chen $23,000 for a sick family member, she asked for an annulment just two weeks later.
It was all to fund her gambling habits
And if you’re wondering where all this money was going, police say, “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.”
The real gamble she made was thinking there was a chance she would get away with it.
If you or your loved one has problems with gambling addiction, call or text 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) to access the network coordinated by the National Council on Problem Gambling.
Published: Jul 9, 2026 11:08 pm