Of the 16 indictees, 13 were arrested and three are still at large.
Indictments were issued in Florida, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Colorado, Michigan and Ohio.
One of the defendants, Nedjo Ikonic, 40, is described in a federal affidavit in Wisconsin as having been a commander of a police unit that cooperated with other Bosnian Serb entities in the July 1995 massacre of Muslims in Srebrenica.
All but one of the defendants face criminal charges that include immigration fraud and/or making false statements. The maximum sentence for making false statements is five years in prison, while the maximum sentence for immigration fraud is 10 years imprisonment. One defendant has been charged with unlawful procurement of citizenship, which carries a maximum potential sentence of 10 years imprisonment.
The cases were investigated by special agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency with assistance from the Office of Special Investigations of the Justice Department"s Criminal Division.