Connecticut woman sentenced to over 2 years for citizenship fraud after hiding involvement in war crimes

CHARLESTON, W. Va. - Homeland Security Investigations Washington, D.C., through its Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center, uncovered 53-year-old Nada Radovan Tomanic's dark past and held her accountable for exploiting the American immigration system. Tomanic pleaded guilty to one count of procuring citizenship contrary to law Nov. 10, 2025, and was sentenced to 30 months in prison. The fraud charge stemmed from Tomanic concealing her involvement in torture and inhuman treatment amounting to a war crime while serving with the Zulfikar Special Unit of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1990s.

"Homeland Security Investigations was instrumental in uncovering the facts of this case, ensuring accountability for an individual who committed torture abroad and fraudulently obtained U.S. citizenship," said HSI Washington, D.C. Special Agent in Charge Eric Weindorf. "This case highlights HSI's commitment to investigating human rights violations and pursuing justice for victims of war crimes worldwide."

During Tomanic's time in the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, she participated in severe physical and psychological abuse of Bosnian Serb prisoners. However, while applying for naturalization, she denied having served in a detention facility or committing crimes for which she hadn't been arrested once in writing and again while under oath during an oral interview with a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officer.

Since 2003, ICE has arrested more than 5,200 individuals for human rights-related violations of the law under various criminal and immigration statutes. During that same period, ICE obtained deportation orders against and physically removed 1,178 known or suspected human rights violators from the United States. Additionally, ICE has facilitated the departure of an additional 208 such individuals from the United States.

Currently, HSI has more than 1,900 active investigations into suspected human rights violators and is pursuing more than 1,985 leads and removals cases involving suspected human rights violators from 955 different countries. Since 2003, the Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center has issued more than 80,000 individual lookouts and stopped over 415 human rights violators and war crimes suspects from entering the United States.

Learn more about this case on Justice.gov.

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