American woman masterminded $6M marriage fraud scheme that helped illegal immigrants get citizenship: DOJ
An American woman living in Massachusetts has been accused by the Department of Justice of arranging sham marriages to help her clients seek green cards and US citizenship.Jennifer Gonzalez, a US citizen, collected up to $40,000 per marriage and arranged as many as 20 per year over the last decade, according to Leah Foley, the US attorney for the Massachusetts District.Gonzalez’s female employees, who were also charged, married the men looking to get legal status in the US, authorities said.“This conspiracy netted her $6 million during the course of the alleged scam,” Foley said during a news conference Wednesday at the Moakley Federal Courthouse in Boston.“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.'”It appears Gonzalez spilled the details of the scheme to a witness cooperating with federal law enforcement.
Foley said Gonzalez believed this individual was an illegal immigrant.Gonzalez, 43, told a witness who was recording the interaction that Massachusetts was “so special” because it is a sanctuary state where “illegal aliens get a lot of help as an immigrant.”Gonzalez also allegedly said her goal was to give all her children pieces of land in the Dominican Republic they could later own.“Miss Gonzalez got rich off selling the American dream, all the while investing her money in another country,” Foley said.Gonzalez told the witness she stopped holding phony marriages at the end of 2024 because President Donald Trump was returning to office, before shutting down the scheme entirely in 2025 because immigration enforcement had become “a little harsh,” according to Foley.Gonzalez was described by prosecutors as the “ringleader” of the operation, though there were other alleged co-conspirators.Amara Pugh, Gonzalez’s 31-year-old secretary, along with Jessica Tavares, 31; Erica Daniels, 29; and Jaylin Hill, 26, were allegedly ...