A National Guard officer’s double life stretched across two countries, two wedding ceremonies and years of deception before investigators uncovered how public money was allegedly used to keep it going.

Maj. Collin L. Welch, 40, has pleaded guilty to stealing approximately $54,000 from the federal government and unlawfully helping a Mongolian woman and her daughter enter and remain in the United States.

Welch, an Arlington, Virginia, resident serving with the District of Columbia National Guard, admitted that he used a government travel card, false receipts and fraudulent travel claims to cover personal expenses connected to the woman he had secretly married while still legally married to his first wife.

The relationship began in 2019, when Welch was assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia’s capital.

While stationed there, he became romantically involved with a Mongolian woman. But there was a central fact he allegedly concealed from her: He already had a wife.

Instead of telling the woman the truth, Welch falsely claimed that his first marriage had ended. Authorities said he went further by showing her a fabricated divorce decree that appeared to prove he was legally free to marry again.

The document was not genuine.

Believing Welch was divorced, the woman married him in Mongolia in 2022. At the time, however, he remained legally married to his first wife, turning the ceremony into part of a secret life that would later expand far beyond Mongolia.

Two years after the wedding, Welch arranged for the woman and her minor daughter to travel to the United States on tourist visas.

Their arrival in 2024 marked a major new stage in the deception. The relationship was no longer being maintained from overseas. Welch brought the woman and her child into his life in the United States while his first marriage still legally existed.

In October 2024, Welch and the woman held another marriage ceremony, this time in Virginia.

The second ceremony did not make the marriage lawful. According to prosecutors, Welch was still married to his first wife and had never completed a valid divorce.

As the woman and her daughter settled into the United States, Welch began paying for their housing, transportation and other personal needs. Authorities said some of that support came from money he obtained through fraudulent use of his government travel account.

Government travel cards are intended for authorized expenses connected to official duties. Welch instead used his card for personal travel and costs associated with the woman and her daughter, according to the case against him.

To make those charges appear legitimate, he submitted false travel vouchers and fabricated supporting records.

The scheme included fraudulent receipts for rental vehicles and hotel stays. By presenting the expenses as government-related travel, Welch was able to shift the cost of his private life onto public funds.

The unauthorized spending eventually reached approximately $54,000.

That money helped cover the woman and her daughter’s travel and living expenses, allowing Welch to continue supporting the household while concealing both the true nature of the relationship and the source of some of its funding.

The deception became even more complicated after their tourist visas expired.

Rather than allowing the woman and her daughter to leave the country or beginning a legitimate immigration process, Welch continued providing them with housing and financial support.

When the woman began asking about her legal status in the United States, he allegedly responded with another layer of fabricated documents.

Welch created paperwork designed to make her believe that he had already started the immigration process on her behalf. Among the false materials were documents that appeared to show permanent residency approval and Social Security cards.

He also produced a letter suggesting that the woman and her daughter would qualify for military dependent health benefits.

None of those documents had been submitted to the federal government. They existed only to convince the woman that her legal status was being handled and that she would soon receive the protections and benefits associated with being a military dependent.

The false paperwork reflected the scale of the world Welch had constructed around the relationship.

He had allegedly lied about being divorced, used a fake decree to support that story, married the woman twice and brought her and her daughter to the United States. When questions arose about their immigration status, he created additional records to preserve the illusion.

At the same time, fraudulent travel claims allowed him to draw tens of thousands of dollars from the government to help pay for the arrangement.

The case ultimately led to a federal investigation conducted by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division, with assistance from the Criminal Investigations Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

Welch pleaded guilty to unlawfully inducing noncitizens to enter and remain in the United States. He also admitted stealing approximately $54,000 in government funds.

As part of his plea agreement, he agreed to forfeit the full $54,000 connected to the unauthorized spending.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 3.

The guilty plea brings legal consequences to a deception that began during an overseas military assignment and continued through multiple years, international travel and two wedding ceremonies.

What began as a concealed relationship eventually required an expanding network of lies—first about a divorce, then about a marriage, immigration filings, residency approvals, Social Security documents and military benefits.

Each falsehood appeared designed to protect the one before it.

But the use of government money transformed Welch’s secret personal life into a federal criminal case. The travel card issued to support his official duties instead became a tool for financing a hidden household, leaving him facing sentencing, forfeiture and the consequences of a double life that could no longer remain concealed.