The "mastermind" behind a marriage fraud conspiracy was sentenced to 10 years in prison following an investigation by Homeland Security Investigations Houston and other federal partners.
Ashley Yen Nguyen, 58, pleaded guilty to the charges in 2020, admitted to conspiring to engage in marriage fraud, mail fraud, immigration fraud, money laundering and making false statements in a tax return, according to an Oct. 27 news release.
“For more than four years, this individual raked in millions by operating one of the largest marriage fraud conspiracies in U.S. history,” said Mark Dawson, HSI Houston special agent in charge, said in the release. “The sham marriages and improper immigration benefits that were fraudulently secured under this criminal conspiracy wasted countless federal resources, delayed an unknown number of legitimate marriages between foreign nationals and U.S. citizens and threatened national security by enabling individuals to remain in the country through deceit.”
“As experts in investigating all types of financial crimes, [IRS-CI] special agents worked with our law enforcement partners and the U.S. Attorney’s Office to put a stop to this criminal network – not just from committing tax fraud and money laundering – but from also circumventing our nation’s immigration laws,” Special Agent in Charge of Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation Houston Ramsey E. Covington, said in the release.
Nguyen operated her scheme out of the southwest Houston area, but had associates in other parts of Texas and Vietnam, the news release said.
The organization organized more than 500 sham marriages in exchange for money, solely for the alien beneficiary to get immigration benefits. The organization generated more than $15 million in illicit proceeds, the news release reported.
