A Fair Oaks Ranch police officer who wanted to join the FBI has been charged with lying about his citizenship to get a job there.

The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force opened a full-blown investigation last year of Pejman Amrollah Majdabadi, 30, for his “aggressiveness” in wanting to join the FBI and his e-mailed request to the agency seeking to attend weapons of mass destruction training being taught by the JTTF, according to a criminal complaint affidavit unsealed Monday.

The Iranian-born officer, now a U.S. citizen, was taken to federal court in San Antonio late Friday on a charge of making false statements about his citizenship to get a job in law enforcement. He was released on $50,000 unsecured bond following a hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge John Primomo. If convicted, Amrollah could face up to five years in prison.

Amrollah has worked for the Fair Oaks Ranch Police Department since April 30, 2007, and has been “a good officer,” said Police Chief Scott Rubin.

The affidavit said that since 2003, Texas law requires police officer applicants to be U.S. citizens, and Rubin said Amrollah was a citizen “as far as I knew” when he applied. Amrollah is now on unpaid administrative leave, Rubin said.

The FBI claims Amrollah lied about his U.S. citizenship in applications to be a jailer, a police officer and, most recently, an FBI agent. In April 2010, the affidavit said, Amrollah e-mailed the FBI expressing interest in attending WMD training, and about joining the JTTF.

In May 2010, he e-mailed again “stating he would be a good asset for the JTTF due to his language abilities and connections he had to the local Persian community,” the affidavit said.

“Sensitive positions with the U.S. government are taken very seriously and any attempt at being deceptive to gain access to these positions is going to be pursued,” said special agent Erik Vasys, spokesman for the FBI in San Antonio.

The affidavit said Amrollah was born in Iran in 1981 or 1982. In July 1998, when about 16, he was caught by the U.S. Border Patrol crossing illegally from Mexico with his parents and a juvenile sister. The family later applied for asylum, and their request was granted in September 1999, the affidavit said.

He obtained legal permanent resident status on Oct. 5, 2004, and on Feb. 25, 2010, Amrollah became a naturalized U.S. citizen — more than a month after his most recent application to the FBI, according to the affidavit.

The affidavit said the FBI found Amrollah applied multiple times to various positions within the FBI starting in 2000, and “a comparison of the applications indicated discrepancies and/or false statements.”