26 Jul 2014

Samoa woman guilty of passport fraud in US.

8:14 am on 26 July 2014

A woman from Samoa has pleaded guilty to passport fraud at the federal court in Fairbanks in Alaska, USA, and will be sentenced later this year.

The guilty plea by Maualuga Leaana was made yesterday under a plea agreement with federal prosecutors.

Prosecutors have in turn recommended that the court dismiss the remaining charges of nine counts of false claims of being a U.S. citizen and one count of aggravated identify theft.

The federal prosecutor, Thomas Bradley, says that Leaana has admitted to applying for a US passport using another name and falsely claiming nationality in American Samoa, when, in fact, she was born in Samoa.

Leaana faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 US dollars.