Belizean Woman Convicted in Florida Over Fraudulent Divorce Decree

A 46-year-old Belizean woman, Ana Zahia Gonzalez of Winter Garden, Florida, has now been formally convicted by a federal jury in Orlando of naturalization fraud, after prosecutors proved that she used a fraudulent Belize divorce decree as part of her bid to become a U.S. citizen. The conviction was announced by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida on April 15.  According to the Justice Department, Gonzalez first entered the United States in 2006 on a visitor visa and then overstayed that authorized visit. Prosecutors said that five years later, in 2011, she married a U.S. citizen even though she was still lawfully married to a Belizean man. The government said her American husband did not know she was still legally married in Belize.  Federal prosecutors also told the jury that in 2016, when Gonzalez applied for U.S. naturalization, she falsely claimed that her Belize marriage had already been legally dissolved before she remarried in the United States. The key piece of evidence was what the government described as a fraudulent Belizean divorce decree submitted with her naturalization application.  Gonzalez was indicted on November 19, 2025; the case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations; and the prosecution is being handled by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Bianca S. Bansal and Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Flanigan. Her sentencing is set for July 13.  On the citizenship issue, the government’s release says Gonzalez now faces denaturalization as a United States citizen. Once citizenship is revoked, the person returns to non-citizen status, and removal can then follow through the immigration process.