The Justice Department said that a neo-Nazi from Georgia planned to dress up as Santa Claus and give poisoned candy to Jewish children and people of color in New York City on New Year’s Eve.
Prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York said Tuesday that Michail Chkhikvishvili, 20, was charged by a grand jury in Brooklyn on Monday with four counts, including calling for hate crimes and acts of mass violence in New York City.
Police said Chkhikvishvili, who also goes by the names “Michael” and “Commander Butcher,” was in charge of the “Maniac Murder Cult,” which they called “an international racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist group.”
Neo-Nazi ideas guide the group, whose initials are MKY. It encourages violence against racial minorities, the Jewish community, and other groups it sees as “undesirable.” “Challenging social order and governments through terrorism and violent acts that promote fear and chaos” is what the group’s members say it wants to do. They have members in the U.S. and other countries.
Chkhikvishvili is accused of encouraging present and potential MKY members to do violent things for the group.
The criminal complaint says that since November, he asked a potential MKY member, who was actually an undercover FBI agent, to help him perform violent acts.
It says that he started planning a big attack in New York City that same month. His plan was for the undercover police officer to dress up as Santa Claus and give poisoned candy to children of color and kids at Jewish schools in Brooklyn, according to the lawsuit.
It says that he gave the agent detailed plans on how to carry out the plot and directions on how to make and mix poisons.
According to the police, he told the agent to buy poison and chocolate candies secretly through a delivery service or by paying cash. He also told the agent to burn the Santa costume after using it and put candy-filled Santa “socks,” or stockings, in random apartments.
According to the complaint, Chkhikvishvili “made detailed and specific overtures” to have the undercover police officer “commit acts of mass violence” in New York City that targeted Jewish people, minorities, and homeless people. These acts could have included bombings, arson, and spreading poisons like ricin.
Police say that some of the things he sent to the undercover worker were connected to foreign terrorist groups and radical Islamist jihadist groups like the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
Officials say Chkhikvishvili was arrested in Chișinău, Moldova, on July 6 after Interpol put out a wanted message based on a criminal report.
The criminal charge says that Chkhikvishvili did a lot of work online to promote MKY and its goals.
He has been sending the “Hater’s Handbook,” a manifesto, to MKY members and other people since September 2021. In it, he said he had “murdered for the white race” and supported “ethnic cleansing,” according to authorities.
Attorneys for the state say he went to Brooklyn in June 2022 and stayed with his grandma there. The criminal complaint says that he bragged about hurting an elderly Orthodox Jewish man that he was taking care of while working at a rehabilitation center in Brooklyn in online chats.
And as early as July 2022, he told other people over and over again, mostly through encrypted text messages, to “commit violent hate crimes and other acts of violence on behalf of MKY.”
According to U.S. Attorney Breon Peace, his goal was to hurt racial minorities, the Jewish community, and homeless people by spreading hate, fear, and damage through things like bombings, arson, and even poisoning children.
Peace said, “We will not be afraid to find and prosecute those who threaten the safety and freedoms of all members of our community, including members of minority groups, no matter where in the world they may be hiding.”
On top of that, Chkhikvishvili was charged with conspiracy to commit violent felonies, sharing knowledge about how to make and use an explosive device, and sending disturbing messages.
He could get 20 years in prison for soliciting violent felonies, five years for conspiring to solicit violent felonies, 20 years for giving out information about how to make and use explosive devices, and five years for sending threatening messages if he is found guilty.
Online court records did not show a lawyer as of Wednesday.
