Two Plead Guilty in Missouri to Immigration Charges

Authorities say two people have pleaded guilty in Missouri to charges stemming from a fake marriage concocted to evade immigration laws.

The office of the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri said in a release that 35-year-old Oleksandr Nikolayevich Druzenko of Jefferson City, pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiracy to commit offenses against the U.S.

A co-defendant, 63-year-old Patricia Anne Ewalt, of El Paso, Texas, also pleaded guilty to the same charge on Aug. 5.

The prosecutor's office says Druzenko, a Ukrainian national who worked at the Missouri Office of Administration in Jefferson City, married Ewalt in 2007 when Druzenko's student visa was expiring and he would have to leave the U.S.

Sentencing hasn't been set, but Druzenko faces possible removal from the U.S. for his guilty plea.