Tornado Alley (PROG)

[StephanieVanbryce]

Man Accused of Threatening to Kill Regulators

January 14 2011 - We missed this one

A New York money manager has been arrested and charged with threatening to kill 47 current and former officials at financial regulatory agencies, including the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission, after the C.F.T.C. accused him and two of his companies of running unregistered commodity pools.

Federal prosecutors unsealed a criminal complaint on Friday asserting that Vincent P. McCrudden, 49, of Long Island, sent threatening, vulgarity-laced e-mails last month to C.F.T.C. officials, including the agency’s chairman, Gary Gensler.

The complaint also said that Mr. McCrudden, on a company Web site, issued threats and listed the names of the 47 current and former officials. Although prosecutors gave only their titles, they included Mr. Gensler and a predecessor at the C.F.T.C., as well as other agency officials; the S.E.C.’s chairwoman, Mary L. Shapiro; top officials at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or Finra, and officials of the National Futures Association.

According to the complaint, Mr. McCrudden accused the regulators of being corrupt and said their actions “can only end with violence against these lifelong lawyers that work at these agencies.”

The complaint said Mr. McCrudden added on his Web posting: “Go buy a gun, and let’s get to work in taking back our country from these criminals. I will be the first one to lead by example.”

Mr. McCrudden also offered a reward of up to $100,000 for personal information about the regulators, according to the complaint.

Mr. McCrudden was arrested F.B.I. on Thursday at Newark Liberty International Airport, according to Robert Nardoza, a spokesman for the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn.

A federal judge in Central Islip, N.Y., ordered Mr. McCrudden held without bail on Friday afternoon, pending a preliminary hearing on Jan 27.

The complaint said Mr. McCrudden had been living in Singapore for the last few months, and he flew back from there to Newark on Thursday, according to a law enforcement official. Mr. McCrudden’s lawyer, Bruce Barket, told Reuters that his client “came back to answer these charges.”

The criminal complaint listed Mr. McCrudden’s previous residence on Long Island as Long Beach, N.Y., although the C.F.T.C.’s civil complaint placed him in Dix Hills, N.Y.

Mr. Barket said Mr. McCrudden was not guilty. Describing his client at times as “ill-mannered and short-tempered, and not very articulate in terms of expressing himself,” Mr. Barket told Reuters that “the idea that he was actually threatening somebody is ludicrous.”

If convicted, Mr. McCrudden faces up to five years in prison on each of the two charges against him.

The case against Mr. McCrudden comes as authorities have become increasingly concerned about the safety of public officials after a gunman in Tucson on Saturday shot Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona and 19 other people, six of whom died.

“In this day and age, there is no such thing as an idle threat,” said Loretta E. Lynch, the United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York. “Those who threaten injury or worse to the lives of others will be promptly investigated and vigorously prosecuted,” she said in a statement.

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/01/14/man-accused-of-threatening-to-kill-regulators/

Heck, I've read this kind of stuff right HERE on IHUB! ..hmmm, I wonder ........?