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FBI agent accused of hiding relationship with female felon


September 12, 2006

NEW YORK (AP) _ A former FBI agent pleaded guilty Tuesday to false-statement charges after he was accused of concealing his relationship with a Colombian illegal immigrant so she could stay in this country following a drug arrest.

The agent, Ronald LeBlanc, 45, of Dania Beach, Fla., entered the plea before U.S. District Judge Richard C. Casey in Manhattan, admitting he failed to disclose the nature of his relationship with the woman, with whom he was intimately involved.

LeBlanc was accused of making false claims, providing misleading information and concealing important facts to secure a visa for the woman, a cooperating witness.

At his plea, he also admitted making false statements regarding the substance of the information the woman provided to law enforcement.

LeBlanc faces a maximum of five years in prison when he is sentenced Dec. 20.

LeBlanc met the woman in the summer of 1999 while working on a squad investigating South American drug trafficking and money laundering organizations.

He registered her in November 1999 as a cooperating witness and acted as her supervising agent, an indictment said. The woman had pleaded guilty to a drug charge after she was arrested by FBI agents in Massachusetts in November 1998, when she and two others went to a warehouse to receive about 50 kilograms of cocaine.

The woman moved to New York in February 1999 after she was released from custody on the Massachusetts charges. She faced deportation because her cooperation was not enough to win her special consideration.

The woman moved to Miami in December 1999, and LeBlanc transferred to the Miami office in November 2000.

The indictment accused LeBlanc of trying to help the woman stay in the country by making false claims in 2001 about her cooperation in connection with Colombian nationals she knew who were suspects in three killings. One involved Donald Pagani Sr., a retired police detective who was fatally shot during an armed robbery of a meat company in the Bronx.

Federal prosecutors alleged that despite LeBlanc's claims the woman never assisted authorities with any proactive attempts to locate the fugitives in the killings before they were captured in Colombia in December 1999.