US Attorney Announces Dismantling of Multi-Million-Dollar Marriage Fraud Ring

Good morning. We are here today to announce charges against six individuals, five of whom were arrested this morning for their alleged involvement in a conspiracy to arrange sham marriages between United States citizens and illegal aliens for the purpose of illegally obtaining immigration benefits, including green cards and U.S. citizenship. The alleged mastermind behind this marriage fraud scheme is Jennifer Gonzalez, a United States citizen who is allegedly responsible for fraudulently arranging sham marriages in Massachusetts for over a decade. Gonzalez allegedly charged between $38,000 and $40,000 per marriage and arranged 18 to 20 sham marriages per year for over 10 years. On the low end, this conspiracy netted her $6 million during the course of the alleged scam. So what did Ms. Gonzalez do with this money? In her words, which were recorded by a cooperating witness, she bragged that she invested her ill-gotten proceeds in businesses and property in the Dominican Republic, which she repeatedly referred to as my country. In one recorded conversation, she claimed, quote, every time I have a spare dollar, I just invest in new property in my country. That's what I really do. I like to buy land like I have a lot of land in my country. She further stated my kids love my country. My kids love to vacation down there. All right so when they grow up they'll each have a land. They'll have some. Ms. Gonzalez did not only enrich herself she also allegedly secured payments for her fellow co-conspirators who participated in the sham marriages. Defendant Amara Pugh allegedly acted as the secretary for Gonzalez's marriage scam business. Erica Daniels, Sharice Alejandro, Jessica Tavares, and Jalen Hill, all United States citizens, were allegedly paid by Ms. Gonzalez and the quote-unquote customers, paid to engage in one or more fake marriages to illegal alien customers for the sole purpose that they could obtain United States citizenship and submit fraudulent documents to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, USCIS, to unlawfully obtain legal immigration status. You will see in the court filings that Ms. Gonzalez was captured on video recordings explaining, among other things, the process of participating in the sham marriages. That included taking couples photos to make the fake relationships look real. And this was all done to circumvent our immigration laws. During one such recording, Ms. Gonzalez explained to a cooperating witness how her business became more challenging under the new administration. She was captured on video stating that she stopped doing weddings at the end of 2024 because, quote, that's when Trump was becoming a president. Gonzalez stated she married a batch of people and made sure they had their documents. She then claimed that she suspended her business in 2016 because immigration was, quote, a little harsh. So who exactly is Ms. Gonzalez? According to court records, she is a U.S. citizen with a criminal history in Massachusetts that Includes convictions for assault and battery, identity fraud and fraud, illegal entry without breaking in, and possession of burglars' tools, and knowingly receiving stolen property. Not only did Ms. Gonzalez run the marriage scam business, she also allegedly entered into a fraudulent marriage herself for the purpose of illegally obtaining immigration benefits for an illegal alien. In one recorded conversation, Gonzalez told the cooperating witness, whom she believed was an illegal alien, that, quote, Massachusetts is the best place for you to be. That is a fact, unquote. What made Massachusetts so special? According to Gonzalez, quote, because this state is a sanctuary where illegal aliens get a lot of help as an immigrant here. Ms. Gonzalez also allegedly applied for and received SNAP benefits. between 2019 and 2026. She did not list her income from her sham marriage business and did not list anyone else in her household, not the illegal alien she married and not the father of her children, who she referred to as her husband. And how much did the Commonwealth of Massachusetts pay Gonzalez in SNAP benefits during this time? A woman who bragged about the hundreds of thousands of dollars she made, much or most of which she apparently sent to the Dominican Republic to buy businesses and property. According to our investigation, which remains ongoing, she spent approximately $124,500 in SNAP benefits. Based on our ongoing investigation, Tavares, Daniels, and Alejandro also allegedly neglected to mention their fake husbands when they each applied for SNAP benefits. The bottom line is this. Every single day, Thousands of hardworking people are going through the immigration process legally and properly. The naturalization ceremonies that take place here in this courthouse are truly wonderful and moving celebrations. What an affront the alleged conduct revealed here today must be to those who play by the rules. To see a for-profit business whose sole purpose is helping people cheat and skip the line by simply paying for it must be so offensive and disheartening to those who follow our country's laws. It is alleged that Ms. Gonzalez got rich off selling the American dream, all the while investing her money in another country. My hope is that today the charged defendants and other like them realize that the American dream is not for sale. It is earned. And when you try to pilfer it for profit, we will hold you accountable. This investigation is far from over. The American people should know that we are committed to enforcing the rule of law and will continue to investigate every type of fraud and prosecute every fraudster we find. I want to thank my federal partner agencies, HSI and USCIS, the federal agents who investigated this case, and the prosecutors in my office who all worked together diligently to bring these charges. I would now like to turn things over to HSI. Good morning. My name is John Soares. I'm the Assistant Special Agent in Charge for Homeland Security Investigations, New England. I currently oversee our Fraud Division. I'm proud to join our partners today to announce the dismantling of a marriage fraud ring that was operating here in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The individuals arrested today are accused of enriching themselves to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, not only through sham marriages but through other fraudulent schemes to include SNAP fraud, housing fraud, and unemployment fraud. The alleged ringleader of this fraud, Jennifer Gonzalez, is charged for her blatant and egregious frauds, coaching participants on how to scam the government and extorting them of tens of thousands of dollars each. Marriage fraud undermines the processes that ensure honest lawful individuals can marry United States citizens and enjoy everything the United States has to offer to them. Fraudsters like the individuals arrested today make that process more difficult for those who tell the truth and typically do the right thing. HSI's investigation alleges that these individuals were career criminals and marriage fraud was just another scam they ran for an additional line of income. Accused all have criminal histories including assault and battery, weapons charges, narcotics violations, and affiliations with known street gangs. Today's arrests were only possible because of the support of our law enforcement partners who work alongside HSI's Document and Benefit Fraud Task Forces. I'd like to specifically thank U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of the Inspector General, U.S. Department of Labor, Office of the Inspector General, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, U.S. Housing and Urban Development Office of the Inspector General, and the Fall River Police Department for their participation and continued assistance in this investigation. Thank you. Good morning. My name is Sean Sozier. I'm the Regional Chief of FD&S Northeast. FD&S stands for Fraud Detection National Security. We're the component within U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services that conducts investigations. I want to thank, first, I want to start by thanking the U.S. Attorney and the Department of Justice for leading this case and for hosting today's press conference. I also want to thank HSI for their collaboration on this investigation. Their leadership, coordination and diligence demonstrates the importance of strong interagency cooperation in detecting fraud and safeguarding our nation's immigration system. This case shows what happens when federal agencies work together, fraud is uncovered, Bad actors are exposed and those who break the law are held accountable. The USCIS is proud to stand with our partners in this investigation and prosecution of alleged serial marriage fraud petitioner and her co-conspirators. This case sends a clear message. Marriage is not a loophole. It is not a shortcut and it is not a tool for gaming U.S. immigration laws. Marriage fraud is not victimless. Every fraudulent petition takes times and resources away from legitimate applicants who follow the rules and increases the potential for public safety or national security threats. This case also makes it very clear anyone who participates in immigration fraud including U.S. citizens who knowingly enter into sham marriages can and will be investigated and held accountable. I want to recognize the investigators, the special agents, the prosecutors, the immigration officers and all the other professionals who worked on this case. Without their perseverance, this case would not have come to light. USCIS is dedicated to identifying and investigating and stopping those who seek to exploit our immigration laws. We will safeguard lawful immigration, defend our national security, and ensure that fraud has consequences. Thank you. Well, is there – can you describe the – any frustration with the DTA and Massachusetts officials for, you know, I guess really not cooperating with the federal government when it comes to SNAP frauds like those? And really their lack of ability to uncover these kind of – So I've said this every single time that we have announced SNAP charges. If the state cooperated with the federal government, I do believe that more fraud would be uncovered just by letting us see the roles and the names of those who are obtaining SNAP benefits. And that goes to ensure that the people who are worthy and need that assistance, that those monies are there for them. Are any of the people who are involved in these fraudulent marriages, people who actually paid this money, $30,000, $40,000, have any of them been charged and have they been identified? What happens to them? The investigation is ongoing, but when we do identify anyone who obtained either a green card or U.S. citizenship illegally, we will prosecute them, denaturalize them, and deport them. Leah, this was going on for 10 years. Were previous administrations just not focusing on this, ignoring it in Massachusetts? Well, I can say that Ms. Gonzalez ran a very sophisticated business, and without someone coming forward to tell us about it, that it could have possibly gone on for longer. We are investigating all of these scam marriage businesses, but it took, in this case, someone to come forward. Associate of Press? Yeah. I mean, marriage fraud isn't new, so what stands out about this case compared to some of the others? There was a national one announced in August that was similar. I mean, what stands out about either motives or scope and also, you know, are we seeing more of this or is it, what's the trend like? Well, as Ms. Gonzalez talked about with the cooperating witness in this case, she was operating with impunity under the last administration. this administration has made it clear all types of fraud including marriage fraud, SNAP fraud health care fraud whatever is going to be prosecuted so here in Massachusetts this is the first investigation in case that's been brought and I couldn't tell you how long our focus is on detecting fraud and holding them accountable does it make it more difficult where you know Massachusetts is being sold as a sanctuary for illegal immigrants to come and commit fraud I mean it seems like she was really comfortable selling um you know that's something that the state and their leadership need to decide whether that is the message they want illegal fraudsters to have and to believe so the investigation is still ongoing there were referrals that were made to Ms. Gonzalez through other customers but the total like scope of it is still being investigated I mean one of the question I mean is this about You mean the past administration, the current government in Massachusetts? This is about the case that we brought today, the investigation that revealed this fraud, and the fact that we are committed to Massachusetts, the taxpayers, to continue to root out fraud and to hold people accountable. That's what this is about. Those weren't my words. Those were the defendant's words. When you talk about lack of cooperation from the state, what kind of message, when we're talking about SNAP fraud, when Lamar Cook's indictment, What message do you hope that sends to people that live here or within the last year's state government? That with cooperation, we cooperate, the state and the feds cooperate on a number of different planes. In drug trafficking, human trafficking, other types of fraud cases. I think the message is if we were cooperating on every type of investigation, then the results would be even, we would be having these conferences even more. Can you say how long she's been a U.S. citizen, Gonzalez? And if you're able to get at her assets in the Dominican, is there any cooperation there? So she is a U.S. citizen. She was born in the United States. We are going to be working with Dominican authorities to identify and to seize, if possible, the assets that were relocated to the Dominican Republic. Depending on how these individuals come into the country, whatever visa they're on, And obviously, there's a process they have to go through in order to verify that it's a legitimate relationship and a legitimate marriage. So are you saying that those processes, it failed, that they failed? Or was her operation just so well done that it just slid through all of those institutions that are already in place to catch this sort of thing? So there were some that were identified to be fraud, and the marriages were identified as fraud. and the people who were trying to get the citizenship or the green card was denied. So the processes that are in place did detect some of the fraud. But again, when you're operating a sophisticated business and you're being very select into who you're going to be pairing up to get married, it's harder to detect. But USCIS, HSI, and DOJ are working to identify other ways to detect these types of frauds. There were 18 to 20 of these fraud marriages a year, and there are six people who are being charged with the same people were getting married and married over and over again within a year. They would get married. They would stay married for a couple of years, three years. They would get divorced. A month later, they would marry another illegal alien. So why wasn't that suspicious? So because the length of time, I mean, they were dedicated to making this work. They would stay married for married for three years. and I don't know what the average marriage length of a marriage is in the United States but it was long enough so that it wasn't suspicious it wasn't three weeks later. Can you just speak to what kind of effect this has on people who are looking to you know enter into legitimate marriages you know they've crafted their own relationships with people who live abroad and they want to start a life here how does this kind of news impact those people? I hope they They understand that if they follow our laws and don't try to defraud us, then they go through the process. They go through it legally. It will turn out the way it turns out, but they won't be getting arrested and charged with fraud. So I think the message to them is, please continue to follow the laws, continue to follow the rules. What do you say to people who are saying these arrests are being made just weeks before the election? When were we supposed to make them? It has nothing to do with the election. These charges were brought at a time in the investigation when we found it appropriate to take the investigation down. Investigation is still ongoing and will continue to be ongoing in the next few weeks.