An American woman allegedly earned millions of dollars by arranging hundreds of sham marriages designed to help undocumented migrants obtain US green cards.

Federal prosecutors identified Jennifer Gonzalez, 43, as the alleged ringleader of the Massachusetts operation. She reportedly recruited five other American women who lived in the state to take part.

Gonzalez, a Fall River resident, allegedly demanded between $38,000 and $40,000 for each migrant seeking a fraudulent marriage, according to an affidavit filed Monday in the US District Court for Massachusetts.

The scheme is believed to have produced roughly 18 to 20 fake marriages annually over a period of about 12 years, according to the court filing.

Gonzalez, along with 31-year-old Amara Pugh, 29-year-old Erica Daniels, 39-year-old Cherice Alejandro, 31-year-old Jessica Tavares and 26-year-old Jalyn Hill, has been charged with marriage fraud, conspiracy to commit marriage fraud, harboring illegal aliens and conspiracy to harbor illegal aliens.

Pugh allegedly served as the operation’s “secretary,” while prosecutors say Gonzalez paid the other women to enter into one or more sham marriages with men seeking to enter the United States.

To make the relationships appear genuine, Gonzalez allegedly instructed the couples to take selfies together, open joint bank accounts and purchase a life insurance policy.

In a recording allegedly made during a conversation with a cooperating witness, Gonzalez referred to Massachusetts as a “sanctuary” state and described it as a “safe haven for immigration.”

Gonzalez allegedly disclosed details of the fraudulent marriage operation to a witness cooperating with federal investigators.

Investigators arranged for Gonzalez to meet the witness in June. He was posing as someone seeking a fake marriage to gain entry to the United States.

“I’ve been doing this for more than ten years,” Gonzalez allegedly told him, according to the filing. “This is something that I’m very good at.”

She allegedly explained that the witness would remain married to his partner for three or three-and-a-half years.

Gonzalez also reportedly said that preparing the fraudulent documents could take three or four months before the marriage could proceed.

When the witness allegedly asked what would happen if his sham wife developed romantic feelings for him, Gonzalez replied: “We’re not here for love.”

Gonzalez allegedly suggested Alejandro, whom investigators believe is her sister-in-law, as a potential wife for the witness.

According to the affidavit, Alejandro had previously married two Brazilian men who lacked legal status in the United States at the time. Immigration investigators concluded that both marriages were fraudulent.

Despite that history, Gonzalez allegedly described Alejandro as the witness’s “best option.” She reportedly claimed Alejandro had been married once, “but not for documents as much as I know,” and said, “these girls are very, very vetted.”

Gonzalez was allegedly captured directing the signing of a disguised ‘loan’ contract and accepting a $3,000 cash down payment for arranging the sham marriage.

She allegedly told the witness that the contract intentionally did not mention the spouse because that could be ‘incriminating.’

The filing claimed Gonzalez said putting ‘purchasing a wife for immigration purposes’ in a contract would be ‘pretty bad.’

Customers allegedly made ongoing $500 monthly payments to their fake spouse to keep up the fraudulent marriage.

Images in the affidavit showed Tavares in May 2018 during a sham marriage with someone authorities claimed was an illegal migrant from Brazil.

Daniels was also photographed in the legal document marrying a Brazilian illegal migrant, albeit in August 2024.

In one recorded meeting described in the affidavit, Gonzalez allegedly said that she had stopped doing weddings towards the end of 2024 when her husband got sick and ‘when Trump was becoming a president.’

Gonzalez allegedly added that she did not work the following year either ‘because immigration was a little bit harsh,’ per the filing.

In another exchange, she stressed that ‘we’re in a new government’ where ‘things are a little bit more difficult.’

‘We both gotta make sure that everything’s done correctly,’ Gonzalez said, per the affidavit.

She also said that ‘Trump doesn’t like this state because the government from here […] the state defends us very much.’

Gonzalez allegedly said in recorded conversations that she used the money to buy property and other assets for herself and her children in the Dominican Republic, which she called ‘my country.’

Leah Foley, the US Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, said Gonzalez ‘got rich off selling the American dream, all the while investing her money in another country.’ 

Foley said Gonzalez also allegedly defrauded the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program from 2019 through 2026, receiving more than $124,000 in benefits during that time. 

Gonzalez, Daniels, Alejandro, Pugh and Tavares were arrested on Wednesday morning. Hill is already in state prison serving a sentence for a firearms offense.

The six women were scheduled to make their initial appearances in court Wednesday afternoon. 

The Daily Mail has reached out to Gonzalez’s attorney, Alyssa Hackett; Pugh’s attorney, Jason G Benzaken; Daniels’s attorney, Oscar Cruz Jr; Alejandro’s attorney, David Andrew Leon; Hill’s attorney, Mark W Shea, and Tavares’s attorney, Megan A Siddall, for comment.

The Daily Mail also reached out to the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts for further comment.

Former Fremantle Dockers player Ryan Crowley is due to face 17 domestic violence charges next year, with most of the allegations involving his ex-girlfriend, Married At First Sight star Lauren Dunn.

The 42-year-old former AFL midfielder arrived at Perth Magistrates Court on Wednesday to face four additional charges involving alleged assault and strangulation. He had already pleaded not guilty to 13 charges earlier this year.

Crowley pleaded not guilty to one count of aggravated common assault and three counts of “impeding another person’s normal breathing or blood circulation by applying pressure to the neck”.

A court spokesperson told the Daily Mail that the four new charges “have been remanded to the same dates as the trial that was already listed on March 2, 2027”.

His $80,000 bail has also been extended. The amount includes a $40,000 personal undertaking and a $40,000 surety.

The 17 charges include allegations of aggravated assault, strangulation, assault occasioning bodily harm, threatening behaviour, endangering another person and “being armed or pretending to be armed”.

Six of the domestic violence charges were laid in July last year. Prosecutors alleged in court that Crowley attacked 35-year-old Dunn “to the point of almost killing her”.

The historical allegations are said to date from between 2019 and 2020.

Crowley was charged with one count of unlawful assault and one count of threatening to kill.

Those alleged offences are said to have occurred in September 2019.

He also faces one count of unlawful assault, one count of intending to harm, one count of deprivation of liberty and another count of deprivation of liberty in aggravated circumstances. Those charges allegedly relate to events in March 2020.

Five of the six alleged offences were made against Dunn, while the remaining charge relates to alleged abuse involving another woman.

It marked the second time in two months that the former AFL player had appeared in court in connection with domestic violence allegations.

Crowley was granted bail in May 2025 after appearing at Perth Magistrates Court over nine separate domestic violence allegations linked to an alleged incident involving Dunn that year.

During proceedings over the historical allegations last year, the court heard that Crowley and Dunn had been in a relationship from 2018 until 2023.

Their relationship was described in court as “toxic” and “highly volatile”.

Dunn has since moved from Western Australia to New South Wales, although she is understood to return to WA regularly for work.

The police prosecutor told the Perth court that one witness had allegedly seen Crowley assault Dunn in 2020 ‘to the point of almost killing her’. The witness had ‘expressed their concerns’ as a result.

The prosecutor said: ‘The accused has shown a propensity for violence.’

The court also heard how Dunn had allegedly received messages from social media users, who had accused her of being a ‘liar’ and a ‘psycho’.

Crowley’s legal counsel confirmed he will plead not guilty to all of the charges.

However, Magistrate Langdon told the court that should he be found guilty of all the charges he would be facing an immediate prison sentence.

‘If you were convicted, you would be looking at an immediate custodial term,’ Magistrate Langdon said at the time.

The Magistrate also granted Crowley bail, despite opposition from prosecutors. Bail was granted subject to several conditions. One of those included a $40,000 surety.

His lawyers argued that there was ‘zero basis’ Crowley wouldn’t comply with his bail conditions, arguing that his type 1 diabetes would ‘be difficult to maintain in custody’.

Defence lawyers for Crowley explained: ‘He already suffered low blood sugar overnight… [the prison officers] only gave him an apple.’

The conditions required Crowley to surrender his passport, report to Northbridge Police Station twice a week, not go within 200m of Dunn and remain in WA.

Dunn and Crowley split in 2023 after five years together.

Crowley retired from professional football in 2016, having played for Fremantle and Essendon.

More than 1,000 employees at one of Australia’s largest banks are facing redundancy just days before Christmas, as concerns grow over the effect of artificial intelligence and offshore operations on jobs.

National Australia Bank is expected to cut up to 1,500 positions before the end of the year, followed by as many as 1,000 further roles by the close of its 2027 financial year.

The planned reductions amount to roughly 6 per cent of NAB’s workforce, with corporate departments expected to absorb most of the cuts.

NAB employees who spoke to the ABC anonymously said they had anticipated redundancies as the bank expanded its use of AI and shifted more work offshore.

James*, who resigned only days before NAB revealed the job cuts, said he had stopped feeling secure in his role after staff were told the bank would expand its teams in India, with a focus on digitising and simplifying processes, increasing automation and speeding up turnaround times.

He has since left banking for a position in the service sector.

‘People are feeling the anxiety,’ he said. ‘I can’t be replaced realistically for the next five to 10 years.’

Another employee, Dylan*, said he discovered that his role could be affected by this year’s restructuring after spending a decade working in NAB’s technology team.

Dylan’s team will be required to reapply for their positions during a two-week consultation process, meaning existing employees will compete for fewer available jobs.

Employees who do not secure a position are expected to finish work by December 17 at the latest.

‘Until today, it’s been a lovely place to work,’ Dylan said.

Technology, including AI, is expected to continue reshaping the way work is carried out across NAB. However, the changes are not understood to represent the widespread replacement of employees by artificial intelligence.

The ABC reported that a leaked workforce plan showed Dylan’s technology division, which had just under 500 employees, would be reduced to 400 positions by the end of the 2027 financial year.

The plan reportedly indicated that the Australian-based proportion of the team would fall from 53 per cent to 40 per cent.

Meanwhile, the proportion of roles located in India was reportedly set to rise from 14 per cent to 30 per cent.

The share of positions based in Vietnam was also reportedly expected to increase, from 13 per cent to 20 per cent.

The Finance Sector Union, which represents bank employees, said it was appalled by NAB’s decision to make staff redundant so close to Christmas.

FSU national assistant secretary Nicole McPherson described the move as a ‘wrecking ball’.

‘It will wreak chaos and entrench a culture of anxiety at a bank that seems hell-bent on self-destruction,’ she said.

‘To take a wrecking ball to 6 per cent of one of Australia’s largest workforces this close to Christmas is disgraceful and shows that NAB’s leadership is completely detached from the lived experience of their workers.’

It comes after NAB chief executive Andrew Irvine told staff to be ‘thoughtful’ and check in on one another, while indicating support would be offered to those ‘impacted personally’.

The banking giant lodged the announcement to the ASX on Tuesday morning after carrying out what was described as a ‘broader review’ of its workforce. 

NAB said the changes would leave it better able to address ‘risks and opportunities’ from ‘more challenging economic conditions, increasing customer expectations, competitive intensity and rapid technological change’.

‘We are particularly focused on reducing the size of corporate functions. There will be no material impact to customer-facing banking roles,’ Mr Irvine said.

‘We have also deliberately made deeper changes to senior management positions, which will broaden leadership responsibilities across the bank.

‘This will simplify work between teams and improve cross-functional processes with clearer roles, priorities and accountabilities for our colleagues.’

The ASX statement said NAB expected to record a restructuring charge of approximately $300million pre-tax in the 2026-27 financial year.

The cost related to redundancies, redeployment and organisational redesign.

NAB is not the only member of Australia’s ‘Big Four’ banks to have cut jobs.

In February, Commonwealth Bank laid off about 300 workers in Australia and increased its workforce in India just weeks after recording a $5billion profit.

Commonwealth Bank had increased its India-based workforce by 21 per cent to 6,788 in the year to June 2025, a 138 per cent increase since 2022.

ANZ also confirmed in September 2025 that it would cut 3,500 jobs over 12 months.

*The names of the workers have been changed to protect their identities.

READ MORE: ANZ Bank to cut THOUSANDS of jobs in Australia 

Former Jetstar pilot Greg Lynn has told a court he was targeted with faeces and other “bodily fluids” in prison, while also claiming fellow inmates have been watching him.

Lynn, 59, is facing a murder charge over the death of Carol Clay, 73, who disappeared from a remote campsite in northeastern Victoria in March 2020. Clay vanished alongside her friend Russell Hill, 74.

During a bail application in the Supreme Court of Victoria on Thursday, Lynn said another prisoner threw a bottle containing faeces and bodily fluids at him while he was being held in protective custody.

He told the court that, following his arrest, he was taken to Melbourne Assessment Prison and placed in the solitary confinement unit for 14 days while undergoing COVID quarantine.

He was then permitted to leave his cell for just one hour each day, spending that time in a small enclosed yard.

Lynn said he questioned prison staff about why he had been placed in the unit and whether he could be moved into the mainstream prison population.

According to Lynn, staff told him it would be unsafe because of his public profile and warned that other prisoners might attack him to gain notoriety.

He said he spent six weeks in solitary confinement before being gradually moved into a 12-cell protection unit, where inmates were allowed out of their cells from about 8am until 4.30pm.

Lynn described the protection unit as being no larger than the courtroom, with up to 12 prisoners living in what he called “very intense” conditions.

He said the alleged attack took place after he had finished giving evidence during his first trial.

Lynn told the court he was eating dinner alone in the unit’s yard when another prisoner approached the door carrying an empty milk bottle filled with faeces and other bodily fluids, then threw it at him.

He said he immediately reported the incident to the front desk and identified the prisoner he alleged was responsible.

“He’d prepared this obviously well in advance,” Lynn told the court.

“He had an empty milk bottle, which he’d filled with faeces and other disgusting material, bodily fluids, and he threw that at me … It was a disgusting attack.”

While giving evidence from the witness box, Lynn named two inmates as well as prison staff.

He said he was placed back in the prison’s solitary unit for a week after the incident, despite being “the victim in the attack”.

He was later transferred back to the protection unit.

Lynn also told the court about a second incident, which he said occurred on July 5 this year at the Metropolitan Remand Centre, where he has been held since October 2024.

He said tension in his unit had built ‘over many months’ as more prisoners arrived whom he believed were informants.

‘They would clearly lie about their own mother for a sentence discount,’ he said.

Lynn told the court he had refused to share a holding cell with two prisoners he believed were informants. 

When he returned to the unit, he said one of them confronted him on a balcony.

‘He was ready to explode. He was like Vesuvius,’ Lynn said.

He said the man made threats mentioning ‘s*** bombs’, said he had ‘killed before and he’d kill again’, and told Lynn to ‘think of my family’s safety’.

Lynn’s wife Melanie, a part-time flight attendant, had been present in court alongside her stepson Geordie, whom she arrived with hand-in-hand.  

Lynn said he asked a prison officer to have the two men separated.

Later that afternoon, as he went out to the yard, the man was standing by a meal trolley.

Lynn said the man told him: ‘So lagging doesn’t work anymore.’

He said he replied: ‘That’s interesting coming from an informant.’ 

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‘And he said, “Who’s an informant?” And I said, “You are”. And he said, “Who am I informing?” And I said, “Me”.’ 

Lynn claimed the man then threatened to stab him before spitting on him. 

Lynn said he walked back inside, reported it at the unit’s front desk and locked himself in his cell.

He told the court that the next morning, other prisoners in the unit shouted abuse at him for up to an hour.

He said the abuse referred to his family and his home suburb, and included threats that he would be stabbed or bashed.

Crown prosecutor Mark Gibson SC put it to Lynn that he was highly sensitive about informants and worried a prisoner might make a false statement against him. 

‘I was sensitive to that,’ Lynn said. ‘I was worried that they might make up lies.’

Mr Gibson asked whether he knew that calling someone an informant was the ‘highest insult’ to a fellow prisoner and was likely to provoke a reaction.

‘And it was a very accurate term as well,’ Lynn said. ‘It was the truth.’ 

Lynn insisted he didn’t think he was insulting the other inmate and added: ‘I was aware that he would probably not take it very well, but it was the truth.’

Mr Gibson claimed the incident ‘wasn’t out of the blue’ and was ‘an argy bargy between two prisoners, one of whom is alleging the other to be a police informant’.

‘I am the victim here,’ Lynn complained. 

‘I am the target of this informant. To suggest that I have somehow orchestrated an assault on myself, that is just ridiculous, sir.’

The prosecutor also said CCTV of the July incident showed no physical interaction between the two men. 

‘He pokes me and he spat on me. That must be seen on the CCTV. I challenge you to bring it here and show it,’ Lynn said. 

Mr Gibson told the court the footage had been destroyed because it showed nothing.

Lynn said he is now held in a unit where he is locked down for 23 hours a day.

He said staff had suggested other units, but he did not feel safe there.

If bailed, Lynn hoped to return home to live with his son. 

Lynn addressed a concern that he could misuse the airport security pass held by his wife.

He told the court he had ‘heard this story’ and rejected it, saying the idea was ‘ridiculous’.

‘The security pass has a picture of Melanie on the front. I would not pass as a tall, thin, blonde female,’ he said.

‘Anyone who had to look at the pass would see that this has clearly been stolen.’

Asked what he would do with it, he said: ‘Steal an airplane? It’s ridiculous.’

Lynn said his wife was a part-time flight attendant for a budget carrier and would be the one to suffer if he did anything with her pass.

‘She earns peanuts. She lives below the poverty line, and she really struggles to get by,’ he said.

‘She would definitely lose her job, and she’d never get a job in aviation again. It would plunge her into severe poverty, and it is just ridiculous to suggest that I would do something to my family.’

The bail hearing before Chief Justice Richard Niall continues. 

Lynn will go to trial over the alleged murder of Ms Clay in May.