A citizen of the country of Georgia on Monday pleaded guilty to federal charges of soliciting hate crimes and sending bomb- and poison-making instructions, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Michail Chkhikvishvili was a leader of the international racial extremist group Maniac Murder Cult, the department said.
Beginning in 2022, he allegedly recruited people to carry out violent attacks on behalf of Maniac Murder Cult. One of those he contacted was an undercover FBI employee, according to the DOJ. He repeatedly asked the agent to commit violent crimes targeting racial minorities, including bombings and arson.
In late 2023, Chkhikvishvili began planning and recruiting helpers, including the FBI agent, for a mass casualty attack on New Year’s Eve in New York City. He planned to have a person dress up as Santa Claus and give poisonous candy to racial minorities. But he changed plans and in January 2024 directed the FBI agent to specifically poison Jewish people, including children at Jewish schools in Brooklyn. Chkhikvishvili sent detailed information on formulating lethal poisons and gases, including ricin, according to the DOJ.
Chkhikvishvili made his guilty plea in a Brooklyn federal court after Moldovan authorities helped extradite him to the United States in May. If convicted, he faces up to 40 years in prison, according to the DOJ.
Was Chkhikvishvili behind any completed terrorist attacks? In January 2025, a 17-year-old killed one person and wounded another inside Antioch High School in Nashville, Tenn., before dying by suicide. The attacker claimed he acted as part of Maniac Murder Cult, according to an audio manifesto attributed to him, the DOJ said.
In August 2024, a man stabbed about five people outside a mosque in Eskisehir, Turkey. His manifesto explicitly mentioned Chkhikvishvili, and the attacker also shared links to violent material from Chkhikvishvili, according to the Justice Department.
Dig deeper: Read my report on a fiery attack on a woman aboard a Chicago train.