A man federal prosecutors say leads a neo-Nazi organization called the Maniac Murder Cult pleaded guilty Monday to planning hate crimes against Jewish people and racial minorities.
Michail Chkhikvishvili, a 22-year-old Georgian national, pleaded guilty in federal court in Brooklyn to soliciting hate crimes and transporting an explosive device.
According to the original indictment, Chkhikvishvili, also known as “Commander Butcher,” was planning a mass attack in New York in which someone dressed as Santa Claus would have distributed poisoned candy to minority children and supplied the tainted product to Jewish schools.
Prosecutors said that around September 2023 Chkhikvishvili began communicating with an undercover FBI employee through an encrypted messaging app. According to the indictment, Chkhikvishvili said in order to join the neo-Nazi group “we ask people for brutal beating, arson/explosion or murder vids on camera.”
In November 2023, Chkhikvishvili started sharing plans with the undercover agent for a mass casualty attack where someone would dress up as Santa Claus and hand out poison-laced candy to children in New York City. According to the indictment, he suggested distributing the candy in Brooklyn.
Chkhikvishvili faces up to 40 years in federal prison when he is sentenced in March. Prosecutors are recommending a sentence between 14 and 17 years.
Chkhikvishvili pleaded guilty to two counts of the four-count indictment. He admitted to soliciting violent hate crimes against racial minorities and Jewish people, and said he would “like to apologize to those communities.”
The neo-Nazi group’s ideology and instruction materials have resulted in multiple attacks around the world, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. A man who stabbed approximately five people outside a mosque in Turkey in August 2024 while wearing a tactical vest adorned with Nazi symbols was reported to have made explicit references to Chkhikvishvili and his group’s “Hater’s Handbook.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story and headline incorrectly described Chkhikvishvili’s plot. Prosecutors say he had planned for someone dressed as Santa Claus to distribute poisoned candy to minority children. Authorities say he also planned to supply the tainted product to Jewish schools.
