However, the investigation allegedly uncovered that Prouty, her sister and a female friend had all committed immigration fraud in 1989, when she was 19 years old, by paying a man to marry her so she could obtain United States citizenship. Prouty claims she disclosed the sham marriage on her application to the FBI and that the FBI could not have been unaware of the marriage, given the extensive background investigations required by her FBI duties. She voluntarily waived the 10-year statute of limitations on immigration fraud, and, in 2007, pleaded guilty to two felonies related to the sham marriage and to one misdemeanor count of unauthorized use of a FBI computer.[1] The tactics allegedly used against her to force a plea deal included freezing of bank accounts, threatening family members, threatening to go after her husband, threatening her with deportation, threatening to charge her with dozens of felonies, and threatening to publicly reveal her identity as an FBI and CIA agent.