Former FBI Employee, Nada Nadim Prouty, Guilty of Fraud, Unauthorized Computer Access

A 37-year-old Lebanese woman currently living in Vienna, Virginia, pleaded guilty today to naturalization fraud in order to obtain US citizenship and then using her false citizenship to get a job at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The US Department of Justice announced that Nada Nadim Prouty entered a guilty plea in the US District Court in Detroit, Michigan on three counts of conspiracy, unauthorized use of FBI computer access, in addition to the naturalization fraud. Prouty now faces up to 16 years in prison.

Prouty first came to the US on a student visa in 1989. A year later, when that visa ran out, she remained in the US, living with her sister, Alfat El Aouar, in Taylor, Michigan outside of Detroit. It was in 1990 that Prouty offered money to an unemployed US citizen to marry her. She never lived with the man, instead remained living with her sister. She did however submit forged and false documents to immigration officers to obtain US residency and citizenship. She then divorced her husband in 1995.

In 1999, Prouty, who was known as Nada Nadim Alley then, used her fraudulently obtained citizenship to secure a job at the FBI. It was there that she worked in the Washington Field Office and received security clearance.

While working for the FBI, in September 2000, Prouty used FBI resources to investigate whether she, her sister, or her sister's husband, Talal Khalil Chanine had been tied to the terrorist group, Hizballah. She also used the FBI Automated Case System (ACS), to which she did not have authorized access, to gain further information on Hizballah.

Prouty had worked for Talal Khalil Chanine on two occasions during the early 1990's. Chanine in fact submitted corroborating documents to attest to Prouty's marriage. Chanine was married to Prouty's sister, Alfat El Aouar in August 2000.

Both Chanine and Aouar were charged last year with funneling funds totaling $20 million from Chanine's restaurant to persons in Lebanon as well as tax evasion. Chanine also is known to have spoken at a fundraiser in Lebanon in 2003. At the same fundraiser, Sheikh Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah also spoke. Sheikh Fadlallah has been named a "specially designated global terrorist" by the US for his ties to Hizballah. Chanine is currently a fugitive-at-large.

Prouty resigned from the FBI in June 2003, and then again passed a background check and used her false citizenship to obtain a job at the Central Intelligence Agency. It was there that the security compromise was discovered in late 2005 by authorities, but Prouty did not resign from the CIA until last week.

As part of the plea agreement, Prouty will cooperate with the CIA to control the compromised situation in security matters. She will be debriefed as well as have to submit to a polygraph. Prouty is to lose her citizenship, and faces sixteen years in prison and $600,000 in fines. US Attorney Stephen J. Murphy commented in the US DOJ press release that, "This case highlights the importance of conducting stringent and thorough background investigations."

Source: US Department of Justice