A Georgian national and alleged leader of a neo-Nazi group has been extradited from Moldova to the United States to face charges that he recruited people to commit violent crimes against Jews and other ethnic minorities in New York City, the US Justice Department said.
Michail Chkhikvishvili, who goes by several aliases, including Commander Butcher and Mishka, was arraigned in federal court in New York on May 23 on multiple felonies.
Prosecutors described Chkhikvishvili as a white supremacist who plotted the mass killing of children and others in minority communities using poison, suicide bombs, firearms, arson fires, and vehicle explosions.
The 21-year-old from Tbilisi who was arrested last July in Moldova pleaded not guilty through his attorney, Samuel Gregory, who requested his client receive a psychiatric evaluation and be placed on suicide watch while in custody. Gregory did not return a message seeking comment, according to the Associated Press.
Chkhikvishvili, described by prosecutors as the leader of the Maniac Murder Cult, recruited people, including on the Telegram messaging app, to commit violent acts to promote the group’s ideologies, including planning and soliciting a mass casualty attack in New York City, the Justice Department said in a news release.
The Maniac Murder Cult, which also goes by several aliases, including Cult of Killing and MKY, is described as an “international racially motivated violent extremist group” that prosecutors said “adheres to a neo-Nazi accelerationist ideology and promotes violence against racial minorities, the Jewish community and other groups it deems ‘undesirables.’”
Prosecutors said the group’s activities inspired multiple attacks and killings around the world, including a school shooting this year in Nashville, Tennessee, that left a 16-year-old student dead.
“This case is a stark reminder of the kind of terrorism we face today: online networks plotting unspeakable acts of violence against children, families, and the Jewish community in pursuit of a depraved, extremist ideology,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in the Justice Department’s news release.
FBI Director Kash Patel said Chkhikvishvili, is accused of recruiting others to kill Jewish people and racial minorities and of providing instructions on how to commit other lethal attacks, “even targeting children around the holidays by poisoning candy.”
Chkhikvishvili distributed a manifesto titled the Hater’s Handbook to members of the group in which he said he had “murdered for the white race,” according to the Justice Department. The handbook encourages and instructs others to commit acts of mass violence and “ethnic cleansing.”
After traveling to Brooklyn, New York, in June 2022, Chkhikvishvili provided detailed plans and materials such as bomb-making instructions to a prospective member of the group who was in fact an undercover FBI employee.
In November 2023, Chkhikvishvili began planning a mass casualty attack in New York City to take place on New Year’s Eve. The scheme involved an individual dressing up as Santa Claus and handing out candy laced with poison to racial minorities, according to the department.
The scheme evolved in January, and Chkhikvishvili directed the undercover employee to target the Jewish community with poison.
The department said Chkhikvishvili wanted the planned attack to be a “bigger action than Breivik,” referring to Anders Breivik, a Norwegian neo‑Nazi who killed 77 people in a bombing and mass shooting in Norway in 2011.
If convicted, Chkhikvishvili faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for solicitation of violent felonies, including hate crime acts and transporting an explosive with intent to kill or injure.
He faces several years in prison for other crimes, including conspiring to solicit violent felonies and distributing information pertaining to the making and use of explosive devices and ricin poison.
