A teenager with dual Israeli-U.S. citizenship has been charged with cyberstalking and making bomb threats to Jewish community centers in Florida and Georgia, the Department of Justice said Friday.
Michael Ron David Kadar, 18, who was arrested last month in Israel, was named in a federal complaints alleging that from January through March he phoned in bomb threats and active shooter threats to numerous Jewish Community Centers throughout Florida, prompting the facilities to be temporarily shutdown or evacuated.
In one case, Kadar allegedly called the Maimonides Hebrew Day School in Ft. Myers, Fla., warning that a bomb filled with shrapnel would go off, targeting students.
The complaint alleged that Kadar, in a phone call to the school, warned that the shrapnel would “rip off their heads.”
A complaint was filed in Georgia charging Kadar charging with calling a police department with false information involving individuals at a private residence in Athens, Ga.
“This kind of behavior is not a prank, and it isn’t harmless. It’s a federal crime,” said FBI director James Comey.
“It scares innocent people, disrupts entire communities, and expends limited law enforcement resources.”
The complaints alleged that the teenager took “extraordinary steps to conceal his identity” when making threats, including using voice alteration techniques and proxy IP addresses online.
The Jewish Community Relations Council of New York said last week that Kadar was arrested in Israel March 23 on suspicion of making more than 100 bomb threats against Jewish centers in the U.S, Canada, Australia and New Zealand over the past six months, adding that his motive for the alleged actions “remains unknown.”
A man who holds dual United States-Israeli citizenship was charged Friday with making threats to Jewish community centers, conveying false information and cyberstalking, according to the Department of Justice.
Michael Ron David Kadar, 18, who was recently arrested in Israel, was charged Friday with making threatening phone calls to Jewish community centers in Florida. Kadar also allegedly gave false information to police dispatchers about a supposed violent incident that never took place.
regarding harm to private residents in Georgia.
From early January until early March, Kader allegedly made multiple threatening phone calls involving bomb threats and active shooter threats to numerous Jewish community centers throughout Florida. No explosives were found, but many of those false phone calls resulted in temporary closures, evacuations, or lockdowns and required law enforcement and emergency personnel to respond, according to a federal complaint.
“Today’s charges into these violent threats to Jewish Community Centers and others represent this Department’s commitment to fighting all forms of violent crime,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said. “These threats of violence instilled terror in Jewish and other communities across this country and our investigation into these acts as possible hate crimes continues.”
According to a federal criminal complaint filed in Macon, Ga., in early January, Kader also made a phone call to a police department sharing false information about an alleged “violent emergency situation” involving multiple people at a private residence in Athens, Ga. Police and emergency personnel responded to the scene only to learn it was a false alarm—there was no emergency.
“This kind of behavior is not a prank, and it isn’t harmless—it’s a federal crime,” FBI Director James Comey said in a statement. “It scares innocent people, disrupts entire communities, and expends limited law enforcement resources.”
The case is being investigated by the FBI, the Dept. of Justice and other law enforcement agencies.
An 18-year-old Israeli-American man, in custody in Israel after being arrested there last month, was hit with US charges on Friday for making hoax telephone threats against Jewish centers.
FBI Director James Comey said in a Justice Department statement that the behavior allegedly perpetrated by the suspect “is not a prank… it’s a federal crime.”
The suspect was arrested in southern Israel on March 23 after a joint probe by Israeli police and the FBI.
While the US and Israel have an extradition treaty, the Justice Department statement made no mention of any effort to extradite the suspect to face the charges in a US court.
A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment further to AFP beyond what the statement said.
The teen is suspected of being behind a wave of threats to Jewish institutions in the US, Australia and New Zealand between January and early March.
The threats – telephoned in using software to disguise the voice and number of the caller – typically said an assailant had planted a bomb or was armed with guns and intended to kill dozens of people, often children.
When police scrambled to the premises, which were evacuated, they found the calls to be hoaxes.
“These threats of violence instilled terror in Jewish and other communities across this country and our investigation into these acts as possible hate crimes continues,” US Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in the statement.
The suspect was charged with making threatening calls to Jewish community centers in Florida, conveying false information to police dispatch in Georgia, and cyberstalking, the Justice Department said.
An acting US attorney for Florida’s Middle District, Stephen Muldrow said, “The charges brought today demonstrate our resolve to pursue and prosecute those who seek to sow terror and fear in our community, wherever they may hide.”
A court in Israel last Thursday extended the suspect’s detention to next Monday. The suspect’s lawyer said the teen has autism and a brain tumor. However, the suspect’s motive is unclear. His lawyer suggested his medical condition might have led him to wrongdoing through no fault of his own.
Israeli authorities have ordered a gag order on the suspect’s name.