Two United States Navy service members are accused of having “green card weddings” with Chinese nationals, federal prosecutors in Florida announced on Friday. Morgan Chambers and Jacinth Bailey, both female members of the United States Navy, are accused of accepting thousands of dollars as payment for marriage fraud involving a pair of Chinese immigrants, which would allow the individuals to obtain green cards.
According to charging documents filed on December 23 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, the two U.S. Navy sailors were approached by the Chinese individuals in September 2024. The plot also involved several other unnamed individuals, whom prosecutors have named as “conspirators.”
If convicted, Chambers and Bailey could face up to five years in prison.
As of last week, neither appeared before a judge nor has entered a plea, The New York Times reported. It is unclear where the two women are based in Florida, but one of the sailors reportedly lives in the Jacksonville area.
Marriage Scheme
Chambers was recruited by an individual identified in the court documents as “Conspirator-1” in September 2024 to enter into a sham marriage, for which she was offered $35,000, including an upfront cash payment of $10,000, with the remaining $20,000 payable after the individual she married received a green card. The final $5,000 was to be paid after the couple eventually divorced. She traveled to Las Vegas in October 2024, where she allegedly met the man she was to marry for the first time.
Bailey was recruited around the same time to enter into a similar arrangement for a payment totaling $45,000. She met her future “husband” on January 1, 2025, and married the Chinese man the next day in a Connecticut courthouse. Bailey was also asked to provide the Chinese man she married, identified as “Conspirator-5” in the charging documents, with a military identification card that would allow him to access military facilities.
“Conspirators would photograph the couples who were a party to these sham marriages, including during the marriage ceremonies, in an effort to create evidence that could be presented to immigration authorities to suggest that the marriages were legitimate, and the couples were in loving, committed relationships,” the complaint stated.
The Conspirators Involved
Two Chinese nationals, who had ties to the U.S. Navy, were charged in a fraudulent marriage scheme last year. According to The New York Times, the dates and details closely matched those of the plot connected to Chambers and Bailey.
“Raymond Zumba, a Navy reservist, was arrested in February on suspicion of bribing a public official to get military identification cards that could allow Chinese immigrants onto a military base. He pleaded guilty to the charge in July,” the paper of record explained. Zumba, who was also married to a Chinese national, was also accused of recruiting Americans to enter into sham marriages with Chinese immigrants. He previously served on the Mayport, Florida-based Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Carney (DDG-64).
Zumba allegedly bribed a former shipmate in Jacksonville to help two Chinese immigrants, including one in the country illegally, obtain fake Navy ID cards. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service and Homeland Security Investigations investigated his case. Zumba could spend up to 15 years in prison for his role in the scam marriages.
Another individual, a U.S. Navy recruiter named Brinio Urena, also pleaded guilty last year and is believed to be one of the conspirators involved in the case. Urena also previously served on DDG-64 and appears in several images in the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service archives. He pleaded guilty to his role in the cash-for-marriage scheme last August.
Neither man was named in the charging documents related to Chambers and Bailey, however.
