North Naples woman pleads guilty to visa fraud, harboring aliens


By AISLING SWIFT

Posted August 17, 2011 at 11:26 p.m.


A North Naples woman who ran bogus Naples hotel ads, then illegally charged Romanians for work visas, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to harboring aliens for financial gain.

At a U.S. District Court hearing in Fort Myers, Flavia Marichal, 58, of Prescott Lane, entered her plea before Magistrate Judge Sheri Polster Chappell.

“Defendant ... knew what she did was illegal and that she filed the applications to help struggling Romanians because she empathized with them,â€