In a new large-scale fraud case, six people have been charged in an alleged Massachusetts sham marriage scheme that prosecutors say U.S. citizen Jennifer Gonzalez arranged to help noncitizens obtain immigration benefits, earning her at least $6 million over the past ten years.
Six individuals in Massachusetts have been charged with allegedly arranging sham marriages to fraudulently obtain immigration status for illegal aliens. The organization’s leader has allegedly been orchestrating sham marriages for illegal aliens to enable them to fraudulently… pic.twitter.com/lX4DmIPNqr
— U.S. Department of Justice (@TheJusticeDept) October 21, 2026
Jennifer Gonzalez, 43, Erica Daniels, 29, Cherice Alejandro, 39, Amara Pugh, 31, Jessica Tavares, 31, and Jaylin Hill, 26, are now charged with conspiracy to harbor noncitizens without lawful status, harboring, conspiracy to commit marriage fraud, and marriage fraud.
Five of them were arrested Wednesday morning, while Hill was already in state prison for a firearms offense.
“Every time I have a spare dollar I just invest in new property in my country. That’s what I really do. I like to buy land. Like, I have a lot of land in my country,” Gonzalez said, bragging.
U.S. Attorney Leah Foley described Jennifer Gonzalez boasting about how she invested money from the sham-marriage scheme on property in the Dominican Republic while unknowingly being recorded.
Additionally, Gonzalez bragged about being happy to buy so many plots of land so her children would have enough to share when they grew up.
Gonzalez allegedly ran the operation and was paid directly by clients seeking immigration status, while Daniels, Alejandro, Tavares, and Hill were paid to enter into the marriages and Pugh handled administrative work as the operation’s secretary.
Each client paid about $38,000 to $40,000 for each marriage. The scheme totaled about 18 to 20 marriages a year.
In a recorded meeting cited in court papers, Gonzalez told a cooperating witness the group had obtained hundreds of green cards.
Prosecutors have asked a judge to detain Gonzalez before trial, arguing that her financial resources and ties to the Dominican Republic made her a flight risk.
Foley said Wednesday the $6 million figure represents a low-end estimate of what Gonzalez had netted through the scheme.
Clients were shown prospective spouses, signed contracts with Gonzalez and made monthly payments of about $500 to the spouses or people close to them, according to court papers.
They (clients) would allegedly get married as a couple at city hall and later pose for photographs at restaurants or other social outings that could be submitted to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Gonzalez also told clients that preparing the paperwork would take three to four months.
The fraud allegedly was coached by Gonzalez who asked clients to open joint bank accounts, obtain life insurance naming each other as beneficiaries and take casual photographs together to support their immigration filings.
Gonzalez used contracts written as loans to conceal the purpose of the payments. In a recorded conversation, she allegedly told a client the contract would not mention a wife because that wording would be incriminating. Investigators recorded her accepting a $3,000 cash down payment under such a contract in a car outside a Staples store where the document had been printed, according to the affidavit.
After a cooperating witness made a recorded payment to a prospective spouse, Gonzalez said in a later call: “I handle the business part.”
Court affidavit shows, investigators received information from a Brazilian man who said he had paid Gonzalez to arrange his marriage to Daniels.
The man introduced investigators to a cooperating witness, who used money supplied by investigators to make recorded payments toward a planned marriage to Alejandro. the witness had previously assisted agencies for payment and could be compensated again.
Prosecutors cite surveillance, immigration filings that they alleged Tavares and Pugh submitted written statements describing Alejandro and a Brazilian national as being in love, even though the couple did not live together.
In Hill’s case, bank statements submitted for his wife’s petition had discrepancies in store names, locations and fonts, and Bank of America had no record of an account in his name, according to the filing.
In a separate allegation raised in a detention motion, prosecutors said Gonzalez spent $124,526.30 in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits between July 2019 and July 2026.
Prosecutors also allege several defendants told the state benefits agency they had never been married while immigration petitions for their alleged spouses were pending.
If convicted, the defendants could face up to 10 years in prison for harboring or conspiracy to harbor and up to five years for marriage fraud or conspiracy to commit marriage fraud. According to the announcement, each count also carries up to three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.
The defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court.
They were scheduled for Wednesday afternoon in federal court in Boston.
