GREEN COVE SPRINGS, Fla. – Federal authorities announced criminal charges Tuesday in an investigation into a scheme that arranged sham marriages between Chinese nationals and U.S. service members, including a wedding staged April 10 at Spring Park in Green Cove Springs.
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A criminal complaint filed April 13 in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida names Hai Vinh “Tony” Lam and Xing Tian and charges them with conspiracy to commit marriage fraud and marriage fraud (18 U.S.C. § 371 and 8 U.S.C. § 1325(c)), the filing shows.
Investigators said the probe began in January 2025 after a confidential source told federal agents that a man identified as Raymond Zumba had tried to bribe Department of Defense employees to create unauthorized military identification cards and had solicited U.S. service members to enter sham marriages with Chinese citizens. That lead prompted a wider investigation by Homeland Security Investigations and military criminal investigators.
Agents carried out a buy-bust in February 2025 after Zumba, two Chinese nationals and another co-conspirator traveled to Jacksonville seeking unauthorized uniformed-services identification cards, the affidavit says. Zumba later pleaded guilty to bribery of a public official and to conspiracy to commit marriage fraud in related cases.
Several other suspected co-conspirators have pleaded guilty or been charged in the broader investigation, and a federal grand jury returned a separate indictment in January 2026 charging additional defendants, the filing states.
The affidavit says investigators identified a U.S. Army soldier stationed at Fort Campbell, Ky., who admitted to entering a sham marriage arranged by Lam. The soldier — identified in the court filings as a cooperating witness — said he had been recruited by another soldier, who gave him a phone number for “Tony,” whom investigators later identified as Lam.
The soldier told agents Lam described the payments as roughly $35,000 total, with about $10,000 paid for the marriage and another $10,000 for immigration-related processing; Lam also paid the soldier $10,000 in cash after the wedding and $2,000 to the recruiter as a “finder fee,” the documents say.
At the direction of investigators, an undercover agent posing as a female Army soldier (referred to in the affidavit as UC‑1) contacted Lam in February 2026. Lam explained that the scheme helps Asian people and their parents described it as an investment in their future. He asked for identity and military documents, and said participants were typically paid about $35,000 in staged installments.
He later provided a photograph of a man identified as Xing Tian as the prospective spouse and instructed the undercover agent to reserve a hotel and a gazebo at Spring Park in Green Cove Springs for an April wedding, the complaint says.
Court records detail the April 9‑11 operation. On the morning of April 10, agents observed Lam and Tian meet the undercover soldier at a Green Cove Springs coffee shop. The group went to the Clay County Clerk’s office in Green Cove Springs and obtained a marriage license. Undercover agents served as the photographer and officiant for the ceremony, which took place at Spring Park that morning, according to the affidavit. Lam paid the undercover officiant $200 and the undercover photographer $500 after the ceremony.
After the ceremony, the newly married pair opened a joint bank account at a Bank of America branch in Jacksonville. Investigators say Tian withdrew $15,000 in cash from a business account and moved another $1,500 into the new account; that $15,000 later was handed to the undercover soldier as part of the payment for the sham marriage.
On April 11, law enforcement stopped a vehicle carrying Lam and Tian in Jacksonville. Officers detained Tian on immigration-related violations and transported him to the HSI Jacksonville office. Lam consented to a search of his hotel room; agents say they seized a laptop and documents that included instructions — in English and Chinese — on how to carry out marriage fraud.
Both men were interviewed at the HSI office. According to the affidavit, Lam said he had traveled from New York to assist Tian and expected to be paid $4,000 for his role. Tian told agents he had contacted an organizer in New York, paid about $35,000 to arrange the sham marriage and agreed to pay another $10,000 upon receipt of a green card.
The complaint says the investigation has involved Homeland Security Investigations, the Army Criminal Investigative Division, Army counterintelligence, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and other federal and local partners, with help from the Florida Highway Patrol and local clerks’ office records.
Lam and Tian have been charged in the criminal complaint, which is the initial charging document. If prosecutors pursue an indictment and the men are convicted, they face federal penalties that can include prison time and fines. The case remains under investigation.