Former Miss Bolivia acknowledges hiring illegal immigrants

A former Bolivian beauty queen has agreed to leave the United States as part of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors over the hiring of illegal immigrants, according to newspaper reports.

Sonia Falcone, of Paradise Valley, Arizona, pleaded guilty Wednesday to hiring undocumented workers and agreed to voluntarily remove herself from the country by Aug. 15, the East Valley Tribune and Scottsdale Tribune reported.

She hired a couple to work as her butler/driver and house manager and also hired the couple's son to run errands and another woman to work as a nanny, according to court documents.

Agents arrested the four illegal immigrants in 2006, four years after their hire.

The original indictments against Falcone charged her with lying on a citizenship application and engaging in marriage fraud to obtain immigration paperwork.

Convictions on those felony charges would have been punishable by prison time, plus deportation, authorities said.

Per the plea agreement, the four felony charges were dismissed.

Falcone, Miss Bolivia International in 1988 under her maiden name Sonia Montero, is scheduled to appear before a federal immigration judge on July 17 but her attorney said she has not decided yet where she will be moving.

Falcone lives with her three children, all U.S. citizens, in a Paradise Valley estate built for US$10.5 million in 2001, reports AP.

Her husband of 13 years, Pierre Falcone, lives overseas. He gained international attention for alleged involvement in an arms trafficking deal to Angola with the son of former French President Francois Mitterand.