A Long Island man told federal agents, "I know I'm finished," when he was arrested Thursday on charges that he concealed his leadership role in the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 in his applications for a green card and U.S. citizenship, prosecutors said.

Faustin Nsabumukunzi, 65, was charged with hiding from U.S. authorities his role as a local leader in Rwanda when the genocide began in 1994. An estimated 800,000 Tutsis were killed during the three-month-long genocide. The indictment of the Bridgehampton man was unsealed in Central Islip on Long Island.

Nsabumukunzi, who worked as a beekeeper in Rwanda and the U.S., was scheduled to make an initial court appearance Thursday afternoon on Long Island on charges including visa fraud and attempted naturalization fraud, which carry potential penalties of up to 30 years in prison. Prosecutors requested that he be detained without bail as a risk of flight and danger to the community.

A message seeking comment was sent to his lawyer.

In a detention memo, prosecutors said interviews of witnesses who knew him in Rwanda indicated that Nsabumukunzi falsely assured Tutsis at public meetings when the genocide began that they would be protected.

But, they said, he then, in private meetings, urged Hutus to begin killing Tutsis.

Prosecutors said witnesses told them that Nsabumukunzi not only participated in the killing of Tutsis, including in his administrative offices, but he also encouraged Hutu men to rape Tutsi women as a genocidal tool.

Prosecutors said that when the charges were described to Nsabumukunzi as he was arrested Thursday morning, he responded: "I know I'm finished."

According to the indictment, Nsabumukunzi was sentenced to life in prison after he was convicted on genocide charges in absentia by a Rwandan court. He'd been accused of using his leadership position to oversee the killings of Tutsis in his local area.

He allegedly set up roadblocks during the genocide to detain and kill Tutsis and participated in killings, the indictment says.

In 2003, Nsabumukunzi applied to settle in the U.S. as a refugee and received a green card in 2007 before applying for citizenship in 2009 and 2015, authorities said.

In his applications, they added, he falsely asserted that he was not involved in the genocide.

Matthew R. Galeotti, head of the Justice Department's Criminal Division, said in a release that Nsabumukunzi participated in "heinous acts of violence abroad and then lied his way into a green card and tried to obtain U.S. citizenship."

"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," said U.S. Attorney John J. Durham in Brooklyn.

In a statement to media, Nsabumukunzi’s attorney Evan Sugar said, “Mr. Nsabumukunzi is a law-abiding beekeeper and gardener who has lived on Long Island for more than two decades. He was a victim of the Rwandan genocide who lost scores of family members and friends to the violence. Mr. Nsabumukunzi was rightfully granted refugee status and lawful permanent residence in this country. We will fight these 30-year-old allegations to the contrary, and Mr. Nsabumukunzi maintains his innocence.”

Nsabumukunzi was released on $250,000 bond.

A federal judge ordered he cannot leave his Bridgehampton home, except for specific exceptions, and is required to wear a GPS ankle monitor.

He also cannot leave Suffolk County and is due back in court on Aug. 5.

Prosecutors say if he is convicted and deported, he faces a life sentence in Rwanda.