BOISE – Ramona Alina Fenesan, 31, a Romanian national formerly living in Ketchum, Idaho, pleaded guilty today in United States District Court to one count of unlawful procurement of citizenship, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced. Fenesan was indicted by a federal grand jury in Boise in May 2012.

According to the plea agreement, on October 24, 2003, Fensan entered into a fraudulent marriage with a United States citizen with the sole purpose of evading immigration laws and obtaining immigration benefits. According to court documents, the two never resided together. In November 2003, Fenesan filed an application with the Department of Homeland Security/Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), seeking lawful permanent resident status based on her fraudulent marriage to a U.S. citizen. In April 2004, Fenesan’s application was approved and she was granted conditional permanent resident status. In June 2006, Fenesan’s petition to remove the conditions of permanent status was approved. In February 2007, Fenesan filed an application for naturalization, wherein she provided materially false statements. USCIS approved the application and Fenesan became a naturalized United States citizen on June 7, 2007, in Boise.

The charge is punishable by up to ten years in prison, a maximum fine of $250,000, and up to three years supervised release.

Sentencing is set for December 5, 2012, before Chief U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill at the federal courthouse in Boise.

“U.S. citizenship is a privilege deserved only by those who obtain it legally,” Brad Bench, special agent in charge of HSI Seattle, who oversees HSI investigations in Idaho. “As this case shows, HSI will move aggressively to identify and prosecute fraudsters who corrupt the immigration process for personal gain.”

The case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).