What happened
A Clark County judge sentenced Jiaying Chen on Tuesday to nearly a year in the Clark County Detention Center, with credit for time served, for a scheme in which she married men in Las Vegas and took their money. Judge Crystal Eller also set two years of probation with a suspended prison sentence of 8 to 20 years, ordered more than $280,000 in restitution, and required addiction counseling and Gamblers Anonymous meetings.
Chen pleaded guilty in July to bigamy and to attempting to obtain $100,000 or more by false pretenses. Prosecutors say she married five men this year, took tens of thousands of dollars from them and then disappeared. They say she forged a Nevada driver's license and a U.S. passport under the alias Vicky Liang and lied on marriage applications, all to fund her gambling.
Casino.org reported she lost more than $300,000 at Wynn Las Vegas in the past year. The reports do not agree on how many men were involved. Prosecutors say five, Casino.org reported more than a dozen, and Court TV reported the court record shows 14 marriage license applications in Clark County and seven marriage certificates issued. None of the coverage says what games she played.
Why it matters
The sentence puts the money first: more than $280,000 owed to the men she married, against a suspended 8 to 20 years she serves only if she breaks probation. The addiction counseling and Gamblers Anonymous meetings are conditions of that probation, so the court treated the gambling as part of the case, not just the motive.
