FORMER FBI AGENT PLEADS GUILTY IN MANHATTAN FEDERAL
COURT TO MAKING FALSE STATEMENTS

CATHY SEIBEL, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, GLENN A. FINE, Inspector General of the Department of Justice (DOJ), and MARK J. MERSHON, Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), announced that RONALD LeBLANC, a former FBI agent, pleaded guilty today before United States District Judge RICHARD C. CASEY to making false statements.

An Indictment unsealed on December 20, 2005, charged LeBLANC with falsifying information on an application for a SVisa, a visa for foreign nationals who are deemed essential to the investigation and prosecution of certain crimes. According to the Indictment, LeBLANC, in his capacity as an FBI agent, made false claims, included misleading information, and concealed material facts on an application to secure a S-Visa for a cooperating witness.

Specifically, LeBLANC pleaded guilty to count two of the Indictment, which charged him with making false statements. At his plea allocution, LeBLANC admitted that he failed to disclose the nature of his relationship with the witness, with whom he was intimately involved, and that he made false statements regarding the substance of the information she provided to law enforcement.

LeBLANC, 45, resides in Dania Beach, FL.

LeBLANC faces a maximum sentence of five years’ imprisonment and is scheduled to be sentenced on December 20, 2006 at 3:00pm.

Ms. SEIBEL thanked the FBI and the DOJ Office of the Inspector General for their assistance and cooperation in this investigation.

Assistant United States Attorney JACOB BUCHDAHL is in charge of the prosecution.