Bridgehampton Beekeeper Arrested for Hiding His Role in 1994 Rwandan Genocide

A Hamptons beekeeper from Rwanda was arrested in his Bridgehampton home early Thursday for allegedly hiding his role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, federal authorities announced.Faustin Nsabumukunzi, 65, is charged with making false statements in his applications for a visa, green card, and U.S. citizenship. In U.S. District Court in Central Islip Thursday, Mr. Nsabumukunzi pleaded not guilty. He was released on a $250,000 bond. He faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted. “As alleged, 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,” stated United States Attorney John J. Durham for the Eastern District of New York.Federal authorities paint a stark contrast to the image of a refugee who found sanctuary in the Hamptons. In 1994, Mr. Nsabumukunzi allegedly served as “Sector Councilor” in Kibirizi, Rwanda, at the start of a genocide that would kill an estimated 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus in three months, according to the indictment. He used his position to encourage “the violence and killings of Tutsis in his local sector of Kibirizi and directed groups of armed Hutus to kill Tutsis” and to rape Tutsi women, according to the indictment. He participated in the violence himself, bludgeoning Tutsis over the head with a club during an attack inside his administrative office grounds, according to court documents.“Following the attack, the defendant directed the armed Hutu men to remove dead Tutsi bodies from the administrative office grounds after they were killed, referring to the dead bodies as ‘trash’ or ‘garbage,’” Mr. Durham writes in a detention memo.In 2008, Mr. Nsabumukunzi was convicted by a community-based Rwandan court and given a life sentence in absentia for his role in the Rwandan genocide. In 2016, Interpol Rwanda issued a warrant against Mr. Nsabumukunzi for genocide, according to court documents.In a 2006 New York Times article, “For the Love of Bees, and a New Life,” Mr. Nsabumukunzi said he worked as a beekeeper in his native Rwanda, where he supervised a team of 150 beekeepers and taught apiculture at several universities. He had also designed a bee box that had become “widely used” throughout Africa. He immigrated to Houston in 2004 after spending a decade in various refugee camps. “Our family moved to Ivory Coast in West Africa during the war and we were unable to fully settle there since Ivory Coast itself broke into war, which resulted in our relocation in 2004 to the United States,” said Thierry Balihuta, one of Mr. Nsabumukunzi’s sons, in a 2021 profile in the Sag Harbor Express.Alan Ceppos and Frederic Rambaud, the owners of Hamptons Honey Company, helped get two of Mr. Nsabumukunzi’s sons into the Ross School in East Hampton. Their tuition, at $18,000 per child, was partially covered by an anonymous donor, according to the New York Times.“Having gone through such horrors, these kids needed an environment that was more personalized and not just a number in a huge public school,” Mr. Rambaud told the New York Times. Neither Mr. Rambaud nor Mr. Ceppos responded to an email or calls requesting comment.In 2009, Mr. Nsabumukunzi and his family moved into a Bridgehampton house built for them by Habitat for Humanity of Peconic and Hamptons developer Joe Farrell’s construction company. In December 2022, a fire destroyed the Nsabumukunzi family’s Bridgehampton home. A GoFundMe page was set up to help Mr. Nsabumukunzi and his family with living expenses. As of 2021, Mr. Nsabumukunzi owned a landscaping company.Despite the seriousness of his charges, he will be allowed to continue working as a gardener for a Hamptons client “who works in private equity,” according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District spokesman.It was an inspirational story of a wealthy Hamptons community rallying around a family that had survived the horrors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Today, federal authorities say many of these horrors were of Mr. Nsabumukunzi’s own doing. An attorney for Mr. Nsabumukunzi did not respond to a request for comment. On Thursday morning, upon learning of the charges facing him, Mr. Nsabumukunzi had a sobering response, according to court documents.“I know I’m finished.”

Bridgehampton Beekeeper Arrested for Hiding His Role in 1994 Rwandan Genocide

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