A former UND student charged with marriage fraud pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday.
Jeffrey Goble, 23, was accused of marrying Alma Numic, a 28-year-old Bosnian woman, in June 2008 at a wedding chapel in Grand Forks in return for $15,000 from Numic, who was seeking U.S. citizenship.
An investigator's report says the two had not met until shortly before getting married and did not live as a couple after the wedding.
Prosecutors said Numic was in the U.S. legally as a student, but her visa would not have allowed her to stay indefinitely. She never became a U.S. citizen, they said.
Authorities said Numic returned to Bosnia sometime in the past year and remains in Sarajevo. She has not been charged in the case.
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Goble was arrested May 4 in Philadelphia soon after returning from Bosnia, where he went a few months ago, allegedly to escape prosecution.
Marriage fraud carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
