An Army National Guard officer is awaiting punishment for using his government travel card to pay thousands of dollars in expenses for a Mongolian woman he married and brought to the U.S. while still being married to another woman. Maj. Collin L. Welch, 40, of Arlington, Va., pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court in the District of Columbia to theft of government money and unlawfully inducing aliens to enter and remain in the United States, the Justice Department said in a statement Tuesday. He agreed to forfeit $54,000 as part of the plea, the statement said. U.S. District Judge Amir Ali scheduled his sentencing for Dec. 3. Currently a member of the D.C. National Guard, Welch previously served with its Alaska counterpart and deployed to Afghanistan and Djibouti. He began a relationship with the woman in 2019 while on assignment at the U.S. Embassy in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, prosecutors said. He was still married to the mother of his children at the time, court records said. His wife, who had moved with him and their family to Mongolia, returned to Alaska for medical reasons that year, according to court filings. The romance with the Mongolian woman and Welch’s pattern of deception continued for years, even after his embassy assignment had ended, prosecutors said. After Welch returned to Alaska in 2021, the Mongolian woman visited him, and he used a fabricated divorce decree to convince her that he was no longer married. He traveled to Mongolia and married her the following year, according to the Justice Department. Welch and his original family transferred to the D.C. area in 2023, but he made video calls to the Mongolian woman from hotel rooms, often paid for with unauthorized charges to his government travel card, to hide that he was still married and living with his family, the court records said. Welch was serving with the D.C. National Guard’s State Partnership Program, which coordinates military-to-military engagements with foreign forces and often requires members to travel for official purposes. But prosecutors said he also lied to get permission for trips with unofficial purposes and used a government computer to create fake receipts to justify unauthorized charges on his government travel card. He used that card to pay for the woman and her daughter to fly to the U.S. in 2024 before marrying the woman again in Virginia. When their tourist visas expired, he continued to house and support them, providing fake documents to convince them that they had been granted permanent residency and issued Social Security numbers. Later that year, the undocumented dependents were evicted from an apartment that Welch had leased for them, after they failed to pay rent and he tried to pay with forged checks. He continued to support them through March 2026. Welch’s attorney, Gregory P. Rosen, did not dispute the details in the court filing — called a statement of offense — but said the full picture would include the strains that two deployments away from family put on his client. “None of that changes the fact that Maj. Welch accepts full responsibility for his actions,” Rosen said. “That alone speaks louder about his character than any statement of offense, standing alone, ever could.” A former senior federal prosecutor, Rosen said he found the immigration charge unusual, even if it technically applied, and questioned whether financially supporting someone after they overstay their visa fell within the spirit of what Congress intended to criminalize. Welch’s plea agreement says he will likely face 10 to 16 months in prison and a fine of up to $55,000. He could qualify for a lower sentence because he has no prior criminal record. 

By CHAD GARLAND Chad is a Marine Corps veteran who covers the U.S. military in Vicenza, Italy, for Stars and Stripes. He previously covered military operations downrange in the Middle East and elsewhere. He has also reported for news outlets in Washington, D.C., Arizona, Oregon and California

Published Date:2026-07-30