Missing Hawaii woman Hannah Kobayashi may have been involved in a green card marriage scam before her disappearance–and the FBI is involved in the case, Los Angeles Magazine has revealed.
Kobayashi was reported missing from Los Angeles on Nov. 11, three days after she left her native Maui to travel to New York via L.A. That sparked a weeks-long search that ended when the police said on Tuesday that she had actually crossed the border to Mexico on Nov. 12.
But Los Angeles Magazine revealed that Kobayahi’s mom has uncovered evidence that she may have been part of a bogus green card marriage and was scammed out of the proceeds of it by her own ex-boyfriend before she vanished.
Her mom, Brandi Yee, has handed documents to the FBI, the magazine reported. The agency declined to comment.
The magazine said that Kobayashi was accompanied on the flight to L.A. by three people: an Argentinian man called Alan Cacace; his girlfriend, known only as Marianne; and Kobayashi’s unnamed former boyfriend.
The ex-boyfriend connected to New York while Kobayashi stayed in Los Angeles.
But Cacace, according to Los Angeles Magazine, was married to Kobayashi in a bogus ceremony to get him a green card, while her ex-boyfriend appears to have set it up and then scammed her out of the payment for it. Documents uncovered by Kobayashi’s mother, Brandi Yee, show that Kobayashi was working with an immigration attorney, who Yee tried to contact.
“That attorney was not cooperative with the mom,” a source said.
After news broke of the possible visa scam, the Kobayashi family attorney took to X to address the allegations.
“We want to stress that the family has not publicly announced any information regarding an alleged marriage because we did not have the facts or the necessary documents to verify the legitimacy of this information,” attorney Sara Azari said.
She added that Yee “turned over the alleged information to law enforcement immediately upon receipt.”
Before she cut contact with friends and family, Kobayashi sent a series of cryptic messages, some of which possibly alluded to the alleged scam.
“I got tricked pretty much into giving away all my funds. From someone I thought I loved,” she texted a friend on Nov. 11.
On Tuesday, the LAPD reclassified Kobayashi as a “voluntary missing person” after uncovered surveillance footage showed her crossing the border to Mexico “unharmed.”
The discovery came a week after Kobayashi’s father, Ryan, died by suicide at Los Angeles International Airport while searching for Kobayashi.
The Kobayashi family said in a statement to NBC News that they would continue to search for her.
“Our family remains hopeful that Hannah is safe and urges everyone to continue the search,“ the statement read. ”The search is far from over, and we are committed to doing everything possible to bring her home safely.”
