Teen accused of JCC bomb threats also allegedly tried to extort US senator
Israeli-American youth threatened Republican lawmaker, sent drugs to his house in effort to incriminate him, Israeli indictment charges
The Israeli-American teenager accused of making large numbers of bomb threats against mainly Jewish institutions in recent months also allegedly tried to extort a Republican US senator, going so far as delivering drugs to his house in an effort to incriminate him.
These allegations are part of an indictment being filed against the 18-year-old, whose identity in Israel remains under a gag order, in an Israeli court on Monday.
The indictment also charges he made a staggering 2,000 threatening calls to Jewish institutions and other entities in Israel and worldwide, according to a short statement sent to reporters by a Justice Ministry spokesperson late on Sunday. This figure contrasts starkly with indictments filed in the US on Friday, which alleged he threatened 200-plus institutions.
The Justice Ministry spokesman said the teen’s name will remain under a gag order as some of the crimes attributed to him were allegedly committed when he was a minor.
Israel and the US are reportedly at odds over where he should be put on trial, with Israel said to be resisting a US bid to extradite him.
According to the allegations, the teenager, a resident of the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, became angry with the unnamed senator over the latter’s criticisms of the threatening hoax calls that had sent hundreds of Jewish institutions into a panic starting in January, and demanded he retract his comments. The teen allegedly threatened to “fine” the senator, using the crypto-currency Bitcoin, if he didn’t do so, and later ordered drugs to the senator’s house in an attempt to incriminate him, further threatening to publish photos allegedly proving the possession of illegal drugs.
Along with attempted extortion, other crimes attributed to the teen in the Israeli indictment include money-laundering, reporting false information causing public panic, conspiring to commit a crime, and hacking. The indictment also refers to some 2,000 calls the teen placed with Jewish community centers, Jewish institutions, commercial places and individuals, making false bomb threats, in the US, Israel, Canada, New Zealand and other countries.
The indictment, being filed with the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court, comes three days after the US Department of Justice filed 32 charges against the teen that include conveying false information to police, cyberstalking, and making threatening calls.
The suspect left scores of messages graphically describing children’s deaths in calls to Jewish community centers and schools across the United States, using an online calling service to disguise his voice as a woman and hide his identity, according to a federal indictment filed Friday in Florida, where he faced 28 counts of threats and reporting false information to authorities.
Separately, he was charged with three more counts of making threatening calls, conveying false information and cyberstalking in an indictment filed in federal court in Athens, Georgia.
The calls to the Jewish community centers and schools stoked fears of rising anti-Semitism and led to campus evacuations.
Earlier Sunday, an Israeli TV report said that Israel was opposing a Justice Department request to extradite the suspect to the US to face charges, because of the state’s severe indictment of its own.
The dual national was arrested last month in Ashkelon, after a joint investigation by Israeli and US authorities, including the FBI.
Investigators from both countries have been questioning the youth since his arrest, and new details of his alleged crimes are continuing to emerge.
The youth is said to have charged for his phone threat services on occasion, specifying incidents in which he issued bomb threats to US educational institutions, forcing their evacuation, on behalf of students who wanted exams postponed. He was paid in Bitcoins for these threats; almost 2 million shekels (more than half a million dollars) worth of Bitcoins was found in his internet bank account.
His lawyer has said that he has a brain tumor and suffers from autism. His parents have also argued that he is unfit to stand trial, though they have apologized for his alleged actions. On Thursday an Israeli court extended his remand until April 24.
US Attorney-General Jeff Sessions and FBI Director James Comey expressed their satisfaction with the charges on Friday, with Sessions saying that the legal proceedings “represent this Department’s commitment to fighting all forms of violent crimes.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.”
Comey said: “This kind of behavior is not a prank, and it isn’t harmless. It’s a federal crime. It scares innocent people, disrupts entire communities, and expends limited law enforcement resources. The FBI thanks our partners for working with us here at home and around the world.”
The Times of Israel Community.