A neo-Nazi from the nation of Georgia hatched a sinister plot to have a person dress as Santa Claus and pass out poisoned candy to racial minorities and Jewish children in New York City on New Years Eve, the Justice Department said.
Michail Chkhikvishvili, 20, was indicted by a grand jury in Brooklyn on Monday on four charges including soliciting hate crimes and acts of mass violence in New York City, prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York announced Tuesday.
Chkhikvishvili, who also goes by “Michael” and “Commander Butcher,” was described as a leader of the “Maniac Murder Cult” —“an international racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist group,” prosecutors said.
The group, which goes by the acronym MKY, follows neo-Nazi ideology and promotes violence against racial minorities, the Jewish community and groups it deems “undesirables.” With members in the U.S. and abroad, it has a goal of “challenging social order and governments via terrorism and violent acts that promote fear and chaos,” prosecutors said.
Chkhikvishvili allegedly encouraged current and prospective members of MKY to commit acts of violence on behalf of the group.
Since November 2023, he solicited the help of a prospective MKY member, who was actually an undercover FBI employee, to commit acts of violence, according to the criminal complaint.
That same month, he began to plan a mass casualty attack in New York City. He wanted to have the undercover law enforcement employee dress up as Santa Claus and hand out candy laced with poison to racial minorities and to children at Jewish schools in Brooklyn, according to the complaint.
He gave the agent step-by-step instructions on how to carry out the plot as well as manuals on creating and mixing poisons.
In those instructions he told the agent to purchase poison materials and chocolate candies anonymously via delivery service or by paying with cash, to burn the Santa costume after use and to place Santa “socks,” or stockings, with candies in random apartments.
In his communications with the agent, Chkhikvishvili had “made detailed and specific overtures” to have the undercover law enforcement officer “commit acts of mass violence” that targeted Jewish people, minorities as well as homeless people in New York City including by bombings, arson and the spreading of poisons such as ricin.
Some of the materials he sent to the undercover employee have been linked to radical Islamist jihadist groups and foreign terror organizations such as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), prosecutors said.
Chkhikvishvili was arrested in Chișinău, Moldova, on July 6 following an Interpol Wanted Person Diffusion that was issued based on a criminal complaint, officials said.
Chkhikvishvili was very active online in promoting MKY and its agenda, according to the criminal complaint.
Since September 2021, Chkhikvishvili distributed a manifesto titled the “Hater’s Handbook” to MKY members and others, in which he stated that he had “murdered for the white race” and promotes “ethnic cleansing.”
He had traveled to Brooklyn in June 2022 and stayed with his grandmother there, according to prosecutors. In online messages he boasted about committing harm against an elderly Orthodox Jewish man he was caring for while working at a rehabilitation facility in Brooklyn, according to the criminal complaint.
And as early as July 2022, he repeatedly encouraged others, mostly on encrypted mobile messaging platforms, to “commit violent hate crimes and other acts of violence on behalf of MKY.”
“His goal was to spread hatred, fear and destruction by encouraging bombings, arson and even poisoning children, for the purpose of harming racial minorities, the Jewish community and homeless individuals,” Breon Peace, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement.
“We will not hesitate to find and prosecute those who threaten the safety and freedoms of all members of our community, including members of minority communities, no matter where in the world these criminals might be hiding,” Peace said.
Chkhikvishvili was further indicted on charges of conspiracy to solicit violent felonies, distribution of information pertaining to the making and use of an explosive device, and transmission of threatening communications.
If convicted he faces a maximum penalty of 20 years of jail for solicitation of violent felonies, five years for conspiring to solicit violence felonies, 20 years for distributing information pertaining to the making and use of explosive devices, and five years for transmitting threatening communications.
As of Wednesday, he had no lawyer listed as representation in online court records.
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