Woman Who Married Multiple Men Under Fake Names Ordered to Pay $280K in Restitution

A woman in Las Vegas has pleaded guilty to one count of bigamy and one count of obtaining money under false pretenses after marrying multiple men and scamming them out of money, which authorities believe she used to fund her gambling addiction.

The National Enquirer previously reported that Jiaying Chen was arrested after marrying multiple times using false aliases and lying on official forms. At the time she was taken into custody, she was married to at least six men and had applied for marriage licenses 14 times between 2019 and 2024.

Once she obtained money, she would allegedly ghost the men.

“Everything she does is false, and I trusted her. I believed her,” one of her victims said in court at her sentencing. That man is believed to have traveled to China five different times to track down the money he lost to Chen, according to CourtTV.

The guilty plea was part of a plea deal that prosecutors hoped would allow her to avoid additional jail time in favor of returning to work so she could pay restitution to her victims. However, Judge Crystal Eller expressed concern that Chen would continue with her marriage schemes unless her underlying gambling addiction was addressed, per the outlet.

As a result, Eller sentenced her to spend eight more months at the Clark County Detention Center, bringing her total time behind bars to one year. After that, she will serve two years of probation and has permission to move to Florida with a new partner. She has also reportedly lined up a waitressing job. Additionally, she must attend Gamblers Anonymous meetings and receive additional counseling.

In total, the outlet reports that Chen must pay back $280,062.86 in restitution to the victims.