14 Husbands, One Scam: Las Vegas Woman Bilked Men to Fund High-Stakes Gambling at Wynn

^{The Wynn casino floor, where Jiayang Chen spent thousands of dollars gambling away fraudulently obtained money under the alias Vicky Liang. (Photos: Buzz Pictures /Alamy, courtesy of LVMPD)}

LAS VEGAS – A woman appeared in court in Las Vegas on Tuesday, after allegedly marrying 14 different men throughout Clark County, scamming them out of thousands of dollars under false pretenses, and spending it all to gamble at the Wynn. Jiaying Chen agreed to plead guilty to one count each of bigamy and obtaining money under false pretenses exceeding $100,000 during a preliminary hearing on July 7. 

Chen, 33, was initially arrested back in 2024 and disappeared after she posted bond. She was arrested again last month in a sting operation between the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and the Department of Homeland Security.

In Nevada, it is a felony to commit bigamy, the act of marrying someone while already legally married to another person.

Same Scheme Used on 14 Different Men

From March 2019 all the way up to May 2024, Chen filed 14 different marriage applications to the Clark County Marriage License bureau under her real name while using the fake name Vicky Liang for 7 years. Seven of those applications resulted in issued marriage certificates. 

Her scheme was consistent: she would meet men through social media, encourage them to marry her after a short amount of time, and would ask for money to supposedly send it to a sick family member in China. Once the money was sent, Chen would either cut off all contact or say she wanted to end the marriage.

When detectives asked Chen during her 2024 arrest why she didn't always follow through on the actual marriage certificate after the marriage application, she said, "not everyone pays.” She explained that men who did not send the money did not get the actual ceremony.

According to police, several victims experienced varied levels of financial ruin. One man gave her $40,000 for a sick family member and never heard from Chen again. Another one married her, got the same story of a sick family member, and alleged that Chen wanted to end the marriage after she received the money. 

Another man dated her for a full year before marrying her, and then gave Chen over $30,000 in savings that his family had set aside for the couple to buy a house together. Once he handed it over, she stopped talking to him and disappeared. Chen was also accused of writing bad checks from one of her husband's bank accounts and ultimately stealing $40,000 from someone.  ‘

"Once Chen received the money, she would break all communications with them," police said in the arrest report. "Once all communication with Chen stopped, some of the males filed for an annulment with the courts, but some also advised they are still married to Chen."

Police say that she collected over $100,000 from her victims through the scheme over several years.

How She Got Caught … Twice

Chen was first flagged by the Clark County Marriage License Bureau back in 2024, when they reported her suspicious application volume to police. At that time, she was arrested on multiple counts of bigamy and theft, but vanished after posting bond.

She later resurfaced under the alias Vicky Liang and had already submitted eight new marriage license applications, resulting in seven new certificates issued in Clark County. The Department of Homeland Security and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department collaborated to arrest her again through a sting operation at a restaurant where she was said to meet a man to discuss getting married. 

Jiaying Chen’s fake passport under the alias Vicky Liang. (Photo: courtesy of LVMPD)

Investigators used surveillance footage to track her there after receiving a tip about the meeting. Officers arrested her and found both a fraudulent passport and a fraudulent driver's license in her possession. 

The police determined that none of the money that she collected went to any relatives overseas. According to the arrest report, Chen lost over $300,000 gambling at the Wynn Las Vegas during last year alone. 

“It has been determined that Chen has lost over $300,000 at the Wynn Casino in the last year," police stated in the report. “It appears the money she has obtained goes to gambling and not relatives overseas."

Chen told investigators that she could make as much as $20,000 from a single marriage and said that she took advantage of how easy it is to get married in Las Vegas. Her next court date has not been announced following Tuesday's preliminary hearing. 

Another High-Stakes Fraud at Wynn Casino

Chen's case is not the first time that someone has been in hot water with authorities for spending money obtained fraudulently at the Wynn. In February 2023, an attorney in California named Sarah Jacqueline King of Orange County was sued by her former employer, British Virgin Islands firm LDR International Limited, for spending more than $10.2 million in company money to fund a six-month gambling and partying binge at the Wynn.

According to court documents in that case, LDR had extended loans to King's California lending company, King Family Lending, which was supposed to go to third-party borrowers. According to the lawsuit, those borrowers were entirely fictitious. 

King allegedly fabricated approximately 97 loans with documentation claiming the money was secured by collateral including “luxury cars, jewelry, watches, antique precious metal coins, designer handbags, boats, yachts, and earnings from guaranteed sports contracts with representations regarding salary and bonus amounts. One loan document even referenced an NBA contract for a 21-year-old Toronto Raptors player.

Instead of properly distributing the funds, King allegedly moved into the Wynn, where she lived in a luxury hotel villa for 6 months and continued to gamble throughout 2022. At the time of the lawsuit, she provided documentation showing that she had only $11.98 left to her name. She was still allegedly asking LDR for more money to make back what she had lost during the same month the lawsuit was filed.

Wynn Resorts has not publicly commented on either case. Neither of them reflects a failure on the casino's part since the money spent was indeed legitimate, but just obtained fraudulently. It’s no understatement that the resort has a luxury reputation that makes it attractive for people who want to spend money that they were never supposed to have in the first place.