A Georgian national accused by federal prosecutors of leading a white supremacist group that recruited others to bomb and poison the Jewish community and racial minorities made his initial court appearance in New York on Friday following his extradition from Moldova.
Michail Chkhikvishvili, 21, known as “Commander Butcher,” pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York to charges of solicitation of violent felonies (including hate crime acts and transporting an explosive with intent to kill or injure); conspiring to solicit violent felonies; distributing information pertaining to the making and use of explosive devices and ricin poison; and transmitting threatening communications. If convicted, he faces a maximum 50 years in prison.
Court documents claimed Chkhikvishvili leads the Maniac Murder Cult, or MKY, an international racially motivated violent neo-Nazi extremist group. Chkhikvishvili allegedly recruited people to commit violent acts, including the planning and soliciting of a mass casualty event in New York City.
Prosecutors claimed Chkhikvishvili wanted the attack to be greater than the 2011 bombing and mass shooting in Norway committed by Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people. Chkhikvishvili allegedly claimed to have committed other crimes while living in Brooklyn in 2022, boasting to others he was “glad I have murdered,” and he would “murder more” but “make others murder first.”
In November 2023, he allegedly sent a series of messages to an undercover federal agent in which he detailed a plan for the agent to murder racial minorities and others in New York on New Year’s Eve by dressing up as Santa and handing out candy laced with poison. He relayed step-by-step instructions on how the agent could successfully execute the scheme without getting caught.
Court records also revealed that Chkhikvishvili sent the agent “The Mujahideen Poisons Handbook” and instructed him that “ricin would be most simple.” The handbook had instructions on creating and mixing lethal poisons and gases to further the cause of “Islamic jihad.”
The attack never happened, but in January 2024, Chkhikvishvili allegedly contacted the agent about executing another attack where there would be the “most people operating,” stating that “Jews are literally everywhere” in Brooklyn, and suggesting for the attack to occur on “some Jewish holiday” and at “Jewish schools full of kids.”
“The defendant is accused of recruiting others to kill Jewish people, kill racial minorities, and of providing instructions on how to commit other lethal attacks — even targeting children around the holidays by poisoning candy,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a news release. “These allegations are despicable, and thanks to the work and partnership of the FBI and the authorities in Moldova, Michail Chkhikvishvili has been brought to the United States to face charges in our justice system.”
Chkhikvishvili was arrested in July 2024 in Moldova and extradited to the U.S. on Thursday. He made his plea through his attorney Sam Gregory, who requested his client receive a psychiatric evaluation and be placed on suicide watch while in custody.
“These allegations right now are easy to make, but hard to prove,” Gregory said, according to The New York Times.
In a court filing Friday, U.S. attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. wrote that Chkhikvishvili inspired “real violence in the U.S. and around the world,” including the mass shooting in January by 17-year-old student Solomon Henderson at Antioch High School in Nashville, Tennessee. Before it happened, in an audio recording posted online and attributed to Solomon, he claimed he was acting on behalf of MKY and at least one other group, and his manifesto mentioned Chkhikvishvili by name.
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