A leader of a white supremacist group known as Maniac Murder Cult was indicted on Tuesday for allegedly recruiting others to commit arsons and bombings targeting racial minorities and the Jewish community, prosecutors said.
A federal grand jury in Brooklyn returned a four-count indictment charging Georgian national Michail Chkhikvishvili, also known as “Butcher,” with soliciting hate crimes and acts of mass violence in New York City, Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York announced.
Chkhikvishvili, who is allegedly a leader of the Maniac Murder Cult, an international racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist group, was arrested in Moldova on July 6 after an investigation by Interpol Wanted Person Diffusion, which was issued based on a criminal complaint.
The defendant allegedly recruited others to commit violent acts to serve the cult's ideologies, including planning and soliciting a mass casualty attack in New York City from an undercover law enforcement employee whom Chkhikvishvili believed was a prospective recruit.
According to court documents, since September 2021, Chkhikvishvili allegedly distributed a manifesto titled the “Hater’s Handbook” to the cult’s members and others which encourages members to engage in acts of mass violence in furtherance of those principles.
In the handbook, Chkhikvishvili states that he has “murdered for the white race” and encourages and instructs others to commit acts of mass violence and “ethnic cleansing,” prosecutors said. It also encourages readers to commit school shootings and to use “children to perpetrate suicide bombings and other mass killings targeting racial minorities.” It specifically encourages committing attacks within the United States, according to court documents.
In June 2022, Chkhikvishvili allegedly traveled to Brooklyn and stayed with his grandmother.
In a conversation in September 2023, the undercover officer messaged Chkhikvishvili whether there was an application process to join the cult. The defendant allegedly said, “Well yes we ask people for brutal beating, arson/explosion or murder vids on camera,” according to court documents.
He also allegedly stated that “poisoning and arson are best options for murder,” and suggested also considering a larger “mass murder” within the United States. Chkhikvishvili then advised the officer that the victims of these acts should be “low race targets.”
Beginning in November 2023, Chkhikvishvili allegedly solicited the undercover officer to commit violent crimes, such as bombings and arsons, for the purpose of harming racial minorities, Jewish individuals and others.
In one incident, Chkhikvishvili allegedly began planning a mass casualty attack in New York City to take place on New Year’s Eve. The plan was to have someone dressing up as Santa Claus and hand out candy laced with poison to racial minorities, according to the court documents. It also involved handing out candy laced with poison to children at Jewish schools in Brooklyn.
Chkhikvishvili allegedly drafted step-by-step instructions to carry out the scheme and shared with the undercover cop detailed manuals on creating and mixing lethal poisons and gases.
Some of the materials transmitted by Chkhikvishvilli were linked to radical Islamist jihadist groups and designated foreign terrorist organizations such as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
“As alleged, the defendant sought to recruit others to commit violent attacks and killings in furtherance of his Neo-Nazi ideologies,” Peace said. “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. 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.”
If convicted, Chkhikvishvili faces a maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment for solicitation of violent felonies, five years’ imprisonment for conspiring to solicit violent felonies, 20 years’ imprisonment for distributing information pertaining to the making and use of explosive devices, and five years’ imprisonment for transmitting threatening communications.