A federal grand jury in Ohio recently delivered a three-count indictment charging Rwandan national Vincent Nzigiyimfura, also known as Vincent Mfura, of Dayton, Ohio, with lying on his U.S. immigration and naturalization applications.
After his arrest in Dayton on June 11, Nzigiyimfura appeared in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio the following day.
According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), the 65-year-old allegedly made false statements, including concealing his involvement in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
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The indictment alleges that Nzigiyimfura was involved in the genocide that occurred between April and July 1994, during which hundreds of thousands of members of Rwanda’s minority Tutsi ethnic group were massacred by members of the country’s majority Hutu population to destroy the group.
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The genocide lasted three months and murdered an estimated 500,000 to 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Nzigiyimfura, a Rwandan butcher and trader, is accused of being a leader and organizer of the genocide against Tutsis in the vicinity of Nyanza and Gihisi.
Nzigiyimfura is accused of providing guns, transportation, and material inducements to other Hutus, as well as ordering them to look for and seize Tutsis who were to be killed. He allegedly used his own car to deliver supplies to construct the barricades and set them up in an attempt to kill and capture Tutsis. According to the prosecution, Nzigiyimfura designed a plan to deceive Tutsis in hiding to believe that the killings had stopped, only to have them seized and executed.
Matthew R. Galeotti, Head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said, “As alleged, Vincent Nzigiyimfura directed and encouraged murders during the genocide in Rwanda and then lied to U.S. authorities to start a new life in this country. The United States is not a safe haven for human rights violators. Those, like the defendant, who commit immigration fraud to hide their violent pasts will be charged and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Galeotti expressed gratitude to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio, HSI Cincinnati agents, and prosecutors from the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section (HRSP) for their efforts in pursuing such an important case.
“The indictment alleges this defendant facilitated the killings of Tutsis during the Rwandan genocide and then lied about it on immigration applications in the United States,” the Acting U.S. Attorney Kelly A. Norris for the Southern District of Ohio said. “This egregious conduct will not be tolerated.”
According to the indictment, when the genocide ended in 1994, as alleged, Nzigiyimfura fled Rwanda and later lived in Malawi. While living in Malawi from 2008 to 2009, Nzigiyimfura allegedly submitted materially misleading applications for an immigrant visa and alien registration, including by falsely representing that he was not an alien who had engaged in genocide.
In the presence of a U.S. Consular Officer, Nzigiyimfura affirmed he understood that any willfully false or misleading statement or willful concealment of material facts could subject him to criminal prosecution. The indictment further alleges that Nzigiyimfura falsely stated in an affidavit that he “left Rwanda in 1994 due to the Genocide,” when in reality, he left the nation because he was involved in the persecution and slaughter of Tutsis. He was granted an immigrant visa to enter the United States in 2009 as a result of his alleged false statements and omissions.
Five years later, Nzigiyimfura applied to become a U.S. citizen. According to the indictment, he also willfully made false representations and omitted material facts, including claiming that he had never persecuted anybody, committed no crimes or offenses, and never lied to any U.S. government official to gain entry into the U.S.
According to the indictment, Nzigiyimfura verbally repeated these and other false statements in an interview with a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services official in November 2014. His naturalization application was denied. Nzigiyimfura has been in the United States since 2009.
According to the indictment, in 2018, Nzigiyimfura applied for a replacement Permanent Resident Card (green card) that was about to expire in 2019 and received a new illegally obtained green card with an expiration date of 2029. Nzigiyimfura allegedly applied for an Ohio driver’s license on July 27, 2021, using his illegally obtained replacement green card.
The charges against Nzigiyimfura include two counts of attempted naturalization fraud and one count of visa fraud. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison. Any punishment will be decided by a federal district court judge after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and additional statutory considerations.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Rob Painter of the Southern District of Ohio and Trial Attorney Brian Morgan of the Criminal Division’s HRSP are leading the prosecution, with support from the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs and HRSP Historian/Analyst Dr. Christopher Hayden.
Additionally, the Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center (HRVWCC) is assisting HSI Cincinnati in its investigation. The HRVWCC, which was established in 2009, supports the government’s efforts to identify, locate, and prosecute human rights offenders in the United States, including those who are known or suspected of participating in persecution, war crimes, genocide, torture, extrajudicial killings, female genital mutilation, and the use or recruitment of child soldiers.
The acting Special Agent in Charge, Jared Murphey of ICE HSI Detroit said, “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI) is committed to pursuing justice for victims of genocide by ensuring that those who committed atrocities in foreign lands cannot hide in Ohio or any other community in the United States. No one wants a war criminal as their neighbor, and these allegations paint a grim picture of the horror Nzigiyimfura inflicted on the Tutsi people. His indictment and arrest is a step toward justice for those victims.”
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