This is a doozy of a ‘diversity is beautiful’ alert involving a ‘new American.’
Japanese national, Rie Hachiyanagi, 48, in custody for attempted murder.
Stories like this rarely show up in the national news, but this story from the elite Mt. Holyoke College is sure getting a lot of attention in Massachusetts.
Yikes!
The former exchange student from Japan who “decided to stay” in the US and ultimately became an art professor was supposedly in love with a fellow female professor (60) who had never had any idea, or had never encouraged, any romantic relationship.
Mount Holyoke professor accused of attacking colleague over unrequited love
LEVERETT, Mass. — A Mount Holyoke art professor is accused of going to a fellow professor’s home over Christmas break and attacking the woman with a rock, a fireplace poker and garden shears out of unrequited love, according to court documents.
Rie Hachiyanagi, 48, of South Hadley, is charged with armed assault to murder a person older than 60, three counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, one count of mayhem and one count of armed assault in a dwelling. According to Northwestern District Attorney David E. Sullivan’s office, Hachiyanagi was arraigned on the charges Friday.
The victim, whose name has been redacted from police reports to protect her identity, is expected to survive, but she suffered severe injuries, Sullivan said in a news release.
The woman is not a member of the art faculty and it was not clear how well she and Hachiyanagi know one another, though the victim told investigators she’d known Hachiyanagi since August 2005.
The victim told state troopers she and Hachiyanagi have never been romantically involvedand that Hachiyanagi was in a long-term relationship with a man, according to court documents.
Both professors were on winter break when the attack took place, according to a spokeswoman for Mount Holyoke, a women’s college about 12 miles north of Springfield in South Hadley. Christian Feuerstein told the Boston Globe that Hachiyanagi has been placed on administrative leave.
Mount Holyoke President Sonya Stephens spoke with students/faculty and didn’t name either professor. From the colleges website: “Mount Holyoke sustains an increasingly diverse, global, and inclusive community of students, faculty, and staff in an environment of mutual respect in which all thrive and contribute to the flourishing of others.”
“This individual … is not permitted on our campus pending further review of the incident,” Feuerstein said in a statement. “We will cooperate fully with law enforcement agencies in support of their ongoing investigations.”
Mount Holyoke President Sonya Stephens also addressed the incident with students and faculty, without divulging either professor’s name, Friday, the same day Hachiyanagi was arraigned.
[…..]
The newspaper reported that Hachiyanagi, a native of Japan, has been a member of the school’s faculty since 2004. A professor in art, art history and Asian studies over the years, she is currently chair of the college’s Art Studio, or art department.
A criminal complaint filed by Massachusetts State Trooper Geraldine Bresnahan indicates that police were called to the victim’s home in Leverett, located about 16 miles north of campus, just after midnight Christmas Eve. Hachiyanagi was the person who called 911.
The responding officers arrived to find both Hachiyanagi and the victim lying on the floor of the home’s foyer. Though Hachiyanagi was uninjured, the other woman was “barely breathing, semi-conscious and with a head injury,” Bresnahan’s statement reads.
Hachiyanagi told the officers she had arrived for previously agreed upon plans with the victim to find her beaten and lying in a pool of blood. The officers searched the house, multiple outbuildings and the property for an assailant, with no results, the complaint says.
At that point, the victim, who was able to speak, told the troopers she had lost her glasses in the attack and did not know the gender or anything else about the person who had attacked her.
Her statements would change drastically when she was at the hospital — and away from Hachiyanagi, according to court documents.
Find out what happened next! It is an incredible tale! Go here, and you can see the arrest report and criminal complaint as well.
What I want to know is this: Do foreign exchange students come here and decide to stay for decades?
Hachiyanagi is a renowned artist known for incorporating handmade paper in her work, according to Mount Holyoke. A 2017 blurb on the college’s website and a 2012 article in the Globe both reported she first came to the United States in 1988 as a high school exchange student.
She decided to become an artist after having to use sketching to communicate in the Kansas community in which she was placed. According to the 2012 Globe story, she was also asked to paint a homecoming mural at the high school.
After deciding on her 18th birthday to study art, she never returned to live in Japan, the Globe reported.
“[A]fter arriving in the United States from Cuba on a raft seeking refuge and a better life…they proceeded to build a vast empire of fraud.”
I could not find a photo of the Cuban crooks.
Here is the news directly from the US Justice Department, and I must say this is one of the better press releases I’ve seen from the feds especially for its mention of the fact that the Cuban crooks were refugees who then took advantage of us. (Immigration history is rarely mentioned.)
(Thanks to one of my many readers who share tips with me.)
We gave them an opportunity for a good life, they ripped us off and now we must pay for their incarceration!
Husband and Wife Sentenced to Prison for Roles in $38 Million Health Care Fraud and Wire Fraud Scheme
Rodolfo Pichardo, 71, of Hialeah, Florida was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison for masterminding a $38 million health care fraud and wire fraud scheme. His wife Marta Pichardo, 66, was sentenced to 8 years in prison for her role in the scheme.
[….]
Rodolfo Pichardo and Marta Pichardo previously pled guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud. On December 4, 2019, Rodolfo Pichardo, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Rodolfo A. Ruiz to 188 months in prison, to be followed by 3 years of supervised release. He was ordered to pay $33,841,576 in restitution. Today, Marta Pichardo was sentenced by Judge Ruiz to 96 months in prison, to be followed by 3 years of supervised release. She was ordered to pay $10,482,178 in restitution.
According to court documents, after arriving in the United States from Cuba on a raft seeking refuge and a better life, the Rodolfo Pichardo and his wife Marta Pichardo settled in Miami-Dade County, Florida where they proceeded to build a vast empire of fraud, consisting of at least six fraudulent home health agencies, three fraudulent therapy staffing companies, and two fraudulent pharmacies. Each of these entities purportedly provided home health services, therapy services, and prescription drugs, respectively, to qualified Medicare beneficiaries, though in fact and as both Rodolfo and Marta Pichardo knew, they did not.
From May 2010 through September 2016, the Pichardos and their co-conspirators used this empire to submit more than $38 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare, for which the trust-based program then paid out more than $33 million.
Fueled their lavish lifestyle with your money!
The Pichardos then used this money to purchase multiple properties, high-end vehicles, expensive jewelry, plane tickets, vacations, cosmetic procedures, and more, both for themselves and their family members.
As part of the scheme, Rodolfo Pichardo offered and paid kickbacks, both by cash and by check, to numerous patient recruiters, in exchange for the referral of Medicare beneficiaries to home health agencies that he owned. The conspirators also offered and paid cash kickbacks to owners and operators of multiple Miami-Dade medical clinics, in return for acquiring medically unnecessary home health prescriptions for the recruited Medicare beneficiaries. These prescriptions were then used by the Pichardos’ various home health agencies and pharmacies to bill Medicare for purported services and pharmaceutical drugs that were provided to allegedly qualified Medicare beneficiaries
During the long-running scheme, the Pichardos took several calculated steps to conceal the fraud and avoid detection, including using nominee owners, changing names and locations of their fraudulent entities, and creating shell companies to conceal the receipt of the fraud proceeds, hide assets and transactions, and divert proceeds for both personal use and to further the fraud.
So much for Michael Bloomberg’s New American Economybuilt on immigrant entrepreneurs.
As I have said before, the President should work some of the fantastic fraud busts his Justice Department is exposing into each rally he attends. He could direct his staff to find one or two relevant to whatever state he is visiting.
I think Florida fraudsters might outnumber Michigan schemers here at ‘Frauds and Crooks’, but I’ll check my archives tomorrow on this blogs first anniversary!
Don’t forget to check in at Refugee Resettlement Watch which has been taking most of my attention in recent weeks!
Lucky for the 11-year-old, her Dad was home and quickly chased the intruder away from their patio door.
Steven M. Hasugulgum, 21, was arrested a short time later.
Steven M. Hasugulgum, 21, a citizen of the Federated States of Micronesia.
Of course the big question for me and others of my readers is what the heck was a creepy man from Micronesia doing wandering around Daytona Beach?
We don’t take refugees from Micronesia, well except for those rejected asylum seekerswho had been placed in detention by Australia on the island of Nauru. Surely he couldn’t have been one of those we foolishly took to America as refugees when Australia didn’t want them. Could he?
We will likely never know unless some enterprising local reporter can pull his immigration status out of the local police.
There are many articles, mostly in Florida media, about the Christmas Eve attempted kidnapping. Thanks to reader Janet for bringing it to my attention.
Man chased from Florida home after grabbing girl, 11, in Christmas Eve break-in attempt
A man was arrested after forcing his way into a Florida home on Christmas Eve, nearly snatching an 11-year-old girl before he was chased off by her father, authorities said.
Steven M. Hasugulgum, 21, was standing outside an Ormond Beach-area home around 6 p.m. Tuesday when the girl opened a sliding door and walked outside, the Volusia Sheriff’s Office said. Hasugulgum advanced, putting his fingers to his lips and telling her to “shh” as he forced her back inside.
The family’s security camera caught the intrusion.
Hasugulgum followed her and grabbed her hand, trying to pull her toward him, but the girl’s father, Derek Kloepfer, was able to chase the intruder away, deputies said.
“If I would have grabbed him, I’m sure there would have been some consequences,” Kloepfer told FOX35 Orlando.
The incident was caught on home surveillance video, and deputies immediately began tracking the suspect.
But just 40 minutes after fleeing, Hasugulgum tried to break into another home in the area, deputies said.
A woman told authorities he tried to turn the knob on her front door, which was locked. She said she opened the door and saw Hasugulgum “acting erratic and holding a hammer.” He then tried to break into her SUV but was scared off after the woman hit the vehicle’s panic alarm, according to the sheriff’s office.
Deputies eventually arrested the 21-year-old when he reappeared near the first house less than an hour later.
Hasugulgum lives in Daytona Beach, but is a citizen of the Federated States of Micronesia, a country comprising more than 600 islands in the western Pacific Ocean, the sheriff’s office said.
If any of you learn more about this man from Micronesia and how he came to be in America in the first place, please let me know!
The national media might be hiding when it comes to the serial killer case evolving in Texas, but the Dallas Morning Newsisn’t!
On Monday another victim was revealed by a reporter who is not letting the horrific story be swept under the rug.
Here is what investigative reporter Charles Scudder wrote:
Another family claims serial murder suspect Billy Chemirmir killed their loved one, the 20th in North Texas
Another family fears their mother was killed by Billy Chemirmir, the serial murder suspect who is accused of smothering older women before stealing jewelry and other items in Dallas and Collin counties.
Imagine the horror if this was your mother or beloved grandmother killed allegedly for a few rings.
Diane Delahunty, 79, died Dec. 3, 2017, at Preston Place Senior Living Apartments in Plano. At the time, though three rings were missing from her fingers, police told her family she had died of natural causes.
But the medical examiner changed her cause of death to “undetermined” in July, and her daughter, Lori Delahunty, said Monday police have told her Chemirmir killed her mother.
Her death is the 20th that has been linked publicly to Chemirmir. Two other women survived attacks in Frisco and Plano.
Chemirmir has been indicted on 12 counts of capital murder in Dallas and Collin counties, and two counts of attempted capital murder. Including Delahunty, eight more North Texas families have said police believe Chemirmir killed their loved ones.
There is much much more in this article (not behind a paywall), but I want you all to go read itand thus let the Dallas Morning News know that there are hundreds, hopefully thousands, of people all across the country following the case.
The article contains a great interactive timeline. This is a screenshot of one date on the line. You need to go to the article for the active version.
And, don’t miss this! Station WFAAsays the Kenyan Killer (of course they don’t call him that, I do) story is one of their top stories of the year:
I think it is because the police and medical examiners may have really screwed-up by missing signs in early cases that might have saved many vulnerable seniors from a horrible death at the hands of a man who should not have been in the country in the first place.
See my previous post on the case, here. In it I have linked all of my many posts on the case since it was made public in the spring.
Please help spread this story far and wide.
And, please keep a close eye on your loved ones that you think are safe in assisted living or nursing homes.
That would be the mother of the San Bernardino Christmas party slaughterer.
She says she is entitled to the payola since she didn’t know what her son had planned (or so she says). Tell that to the 14 families who lost their loved ones forever!
(The story was at the Daily Mail a couple of weeks ago, but I missed it.)
Mother of San Bernardino terrorist trying to get money from Minnesota Life Insurance
Rafia Farook, the mother of San Bernardino terrorist Syed Farook, is trying to cash in on her son’s $280,000 life insurance policy. Here’s the Daily Mail:
“Rafia is battling the Justice Department over Farook’s $280,000 life insurance policy of which she was the primary beneficiary. Insurers Minnesota Life Insurance paid out shortly after the attack but the funds were held by court after the Justice Department attempted to have the cash seized as proceeds of crime.”
Four years ago Rafia Farook’s son Syed, and her son’s wife Tashfeen Malik, shot up a Christmas party at the San Bernardino Department of Public Health, where Syed was an employee. As a result of the attack, 14 were killed and another 22 injured. Both Malik and Syed Farook were killed by police while they fled the scene.
It is unclear why Minnesota Life Insurance paid out money because of the death.*** However, it is possible that the money was paid out to reduce legal exposure for Minnesota Life Insurance, especially since the Justice Department would surely seize the money once it was paid. Minnesota Life Insurance is a subsidiary of Securian Financial, which is headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota.
The Daily Mail continues: “Rafia is continuing to fight attempts by the federal government to retain the payout. She says that because she did not know her son was going to commit an act of terror, there is no reason for the money not to be paid.”
But Rafia Farook has other problems. Her other son Syed Raheel and his Russian wife are in trouble for immigration fraud.
That’s because Syed Raheel tried to get his wife’s sister into the country via a sham-marriage with Enrique Marquez Jr., who is currently serving 25 years in federal prison after admitting to purchasing guns that were used in the Farook-Malik terror attack.
*** Someone should see who runs the Minnesota Life Insurance Company! Do you follow my meaning!
Rodolfo Pichardo, 71, of Hialeah, Florida was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison for masterminding a $38 million health care fraud and wire fraud scheme. His wife Marta Pichardo, 66, was sentenced to 8 years in prison for her role in the scheme.
