Jury Convicts Arizona Man For Fraudulent Citizenship Scheme Targeting Immigrant Population

LAS VEGAS – Yesterday, a federal jury convicted an Arizona man of orchestrating an adult adoption business scheme to fraudulently obtain more than one million dollars from his clients — who consisted mostly of Chinese and Spanish speaking individuals — by promising them U.S. citizenship through adult adoption.

“U.S. citizenship cannot be bought,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Christopher Chiou for the District of Nevada. “Together with our law enforcement partners, our office will hold accountable those who manipulate and defraud immigrants for their own personal financial gain, such as by deceiving victims on the false promise of U.S. citizenship.”

"It is an honor and a privilege to become an American citizen, and this individual egregiously exploited trusting victims for his own financial gain," said Special Agent in Charge Spencer L. Evans for the FBI. "The sentence should serve as a warning to others that the FBI and our law enforcement partners will remain steadfast in our efforts to dismantle criminal enterprises that strive to circumvent our laws by deceptive and deceitful means.”

Following a six-day trial, Douglas Lee Thayer (68, of Mohave Valley, Arizona) was found guilty of two counts of mail fraud. U.S. District Judge Gloria M. Navarro presided over the trial and scheduled a sentencing hearing for July 26, 2022. For each count of mail fraud, Thayer faces a statutory maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, a term of supervised release, and a fine.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, in 2015 and 2016, Thayer operated U.S. Adult Adoption Services Inc. (USAAS), a business that promised its clients U.S. citizenship in exchange for money. Thayer fraudulently represented to his adult clients that they would be adopted by U.S. citizens. This would supposedly allow the clients to obtain new birth certificates and, subsequently, obtain U.S. citizenship for themselves. Thayer charged each client an upfront payment between $7,000 and $20,000 for USAAS’s services. In total, Thayer received more than $1,018,337.83 in payments from his clients.

This case was investigated by the FBI. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Simon F. Kung and Jessica Oliva are prosecuting the case.

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