LAS VEGAS (Court TV) — Prosecutors called a defendant the “quintessential runaway bride” at her sentencing for taking money from men in schemes spanning several years.
Jiaying Chen, 33, pleaded guilty to one count of bigamy and one count of obtaining money under false pretenses under a plea deal that spared her prison, though she still must serve jail time.
Jiaying Chen appears at her sentencing on Oct. 6, 2026. (Court TV)
Investigators said Chen married five men in the past year alone and vanished after taking tens of thousands of dollars from them, KSNV reported. At her sentencing on Tuesday, prosecutors said nine victims were requesting restitution ranging from $8,142 to $80,920. Between 2019 and 2024, Chen applied for 14 marriage licenses in Clark County, Nevada, Law&Crime reported. From those, seven marriage certificates were issued.
“A wedding is supposed to bring families together to share a future, but instead, hers brought victims together to share a courtroom,” prosecutors said Tuesday. “Ms. Chen has established that she is the quintessential runaway bride.”
One victim, who spoke in court on Tuesday, said, “Everything she does is false, and I trusted her. I believed her.”
Prosecutors said that victim traveled to China five times to track down the money he lost to Chen.
Prosecutors said they requested probation because, although Chen is a lawful resident of the United States, “given our current political environment regarding deportations, we cannot make sure she will stay in the country if she’s sentenced directly to prison. So the victims and the state are asking for her to stay in this country while on probation, as it’s really the only major assurance that these victims can pursue their restitution judgments against her.”
Probation will include monitoring after prosecutors told Judge Crystal Eller that Chen already has plans to move out of state. “She intends to leave this jurisdiction and live in Florida with her new partner,” prosecutors said. “I sincerely hope this all works out for her.”
Chen’s defense team said it agreed to the terms of the plea agreement, which called for an eight-to-20-year suspended sentence, but asked that she not serve any further jail time so that she can begin earning money to pay back her victims. Chen’s attorney said that her theft stemmed from a gambling addiction, and that “she really wants to pay people, all of her victims, back.”
“There’s absolutely no reason to believe that this is not going to continue with a different ID in a different state if the underlying addiction isn’t addressed,” Eller said as she began to pronounce the sentence. “There’s zero chance that she’s not going to do this again.”
Eller ordered Chen to return to the Clark County Detention Center to serve an additional eight months of jail time — meaning she will have served one year, including the four months since her arrest. After her release, Chen will serve two years of probation, with permission to move to Florida, where she has a waitressing job lined up at a friend’s sushi restaurant. She must attend Gamblers Anonymous meetings and receive addiction counseling. She must also pay back $280,062.86 to her victims.
