LOS ANGELES (KNX) — A Lakewood man has been arrested on federal charges Monday alleging he threatened to bomb the U.S. Small Business Administration offices and assault employees after he was unable to obtain a COVID-19 emergency business loan.
Christopher Joseph Antoun, 29, was arrested on Saturday on a complaint charging him with one count of making threats by interstate communication.
According to court filings, Anoun is the owner of Federal Student Loan Consulting LLC, a company operated out of his Lakewood home. Early last year, Antoun applied for a COVID-19 Emergency Injury Disaster Loan, which provides capital to small businesses affected by the pandemic.
In May of last year, after having been denied an EIDL loan, Antoun allegedly sent an email to an SBA-monitored email account which read, in part, “It goes into my bank account tonight or I start bombing every location owned by the SBA.”
An SBA officer in Texas received the email and contacted law enforcement, according to an affidavit submitted with the government’s complaint.
Authorities interviewed Antoun at his home, during which said he had consumed marijuana and alcohol prior to sending the email and had no intent of carrying out the threats contained in it. He received a warning but was not arrested.
However, in the summer and fall of this year, Antoun again attempted to obtain an SBA loan. Upon encountering unspecified “difficulties” in the application process, he allegedly sent an email to several SBA employees on Nov. 19 in which he threatened to enter the Los Angeles district office “with my nice shiny bat” and “start beating the skulls of SBA staff in.”
“Once the police or whoever it is eventually stops me im [sic] going to jail,” he wrote, according to an affidavit.
Antoun made his initial court appearance Monday afternoon in L.A. federal court. He was ordered jailed without bond. He will return to court on Dec. 10 for arraignment.
If convicted, Antoun faces a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison.
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