Faustin Nsabumukunzi's alleged past caught up with him on Thursday morning, when the Bridgehampton beekeeper was arrested and charged with immigration fraud for concealing his role in the Rwandan genocide more than 30 years ago.
An indictment was unsealed at the federal courthouse in Central Islip charging Mr. Nsabumukunzi with visa fraud and attempted naturalization fraud for lying on his applications for a green card and for United States citizenship by concealing his role as a local leader and perpetrator of violence during the 1994 genocide. He was arraigned before United States District Judge Joanna Seybert. If convicted on all counts, Mr. Nsabumukunzi faces a maximum of 30 years in prison.
Mr. Nsabumukunzi “repeatedly lied to conceal his involvement in the horrific Rwandan genocide while seeking to become a lawful permanent resident and citizen of the United States,” U.S. Attorney John J. Durham said in a statement issued by the federal Department of Justice. “For over two decades, he got away with those lies and lived in the United States with an undeserved clean slate, a luxury that his victims will never have, but thanks to the tenacious efforts of our investigators and prosecutors, the defendant finally will be held accountable for his brutal actions.”
“As alleged, the defendant participated in the commission of heinous acts of violence abroad and then lied his way into a green card and tried to obtain U.S. citizenship,” Matthew R. Galeotti of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said in the same statement. “No matter how much time has passed, the Department of Justice will find and prosecute individuals who committed atrocities in their home countries and covered them up to gain entry and seek citizenship in the United States.”
According to court filings, Mr. Nsabumukunzi served as a local “sector councilor” in Rwanda in 1994 when the genocide began. Between April and July of that year, members of the majority Hutu population committed acts of violence including murder, rape, and sexual violence against the minority Tutsis. An estimated 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed during the three-month genocide. The massacre followed the death of the Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, when the plane he was traveling in was shot down on April 6, 1994.
The indictment alleges that Mr. Nsabumukunzi used his leadership position to oversee the violence and killings of Tutsis in his local sector of Kibirizi and directed groups of armed Hutus to kill Tutsis. “He set up roadblocks during the genocide to detain and kill Tutsis and participated in killings and violence," according to the Justice Department. This included ordering a group of armed Hutus to locations where Tutsis were sheltering. The Tutsis were killed there. Mr. Nsabumukunzi is also alleged to have facilitated the rape of Tutsi women by verbally encouraging Hutu men to do so. According to court filings, he has been convicted of genocide in absentia by a Rwandan court.
The Justice Department further alleged that Mr. Nsabumukunzi applied for refugee resettlement in the United States in August 2003, applied for and received a green card in November 2007, and later submitted applications for naturalization in 2009 and 2015, but lied to immigration officials to gain admission to the United States as a refugee by falsely denying in the applications under penalty of perjury that he ever engaged in genocide. Those lies were repeated, according to the indictment, in his subsequent applications for a green card and for naturalization.
As a result of concealing his actions during the genocide, Mr. Nsabumukunzi has been able to live and work in the United States since 2003. The New York Times reported in 2006 that he was working at Hamptons Honey in Water Mill, and that he had taught apiculture, or beekeeping, at universities and developed a new type of bee box that became widely used in Africa. In Rwanda, he had supervised a team of 150 beekeepers and 1,500 hives, according to The Times.
The Star reported in 2022 on a fire that destroyed the Bridgehampton house where Mr. Nsabumukunzi, his wife, and their two children lived, along with nearly all of their possessions. GoFundMe campaigns were launched to benefit Mr. Nsabumukunzi's wife, Agnes Mujawayezu, who worked at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, and the rest of the family.
“This defendant has been living in the United States for decades, hiding his alleged horrific conduct, human rights violations, and his role in these senseless atrocities against innocent Tutsis,” Darren B. McCormack, the acting special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations, said in the Justice Department's statement. “The depraved conduct of which the defendant is accused represents the worst of humanity. As demonstrated through the tireless work of H.S.I. New York agents, analysts, and task force officers, we will never tolerate the safe-harboring of individuals linked to such unimaginable crimes.”
