A 20-year-old accused cult leader is in custody after federal prosecutors said he planned racial “terror” attacks in New York City, including one involving someone dressed as Santa Claus handing out poisoned candy on New Year’s Eve.
Michail Chkhikvishvili — a Georgian national who goes by “Mishka,” “Michael,” “Commander Butcher” and “Butcher” — recruited people to commit hate crimes and violence to further Neo-Nazi ideologies against Jews and others, according to prosecutors.
In November, he laid out step-by-step instructions to one person he was trying to recruit and who he wanted to dress up as Santa to give out laced chocolates Dec. 31, court documents show.
“After giving around poisoned candies to many racial minorities and traitors, just go to taxi, pay to go somewhere, where you will have alternate clothes…” Chkhikvishvili texted this person, according to a screenshot included in the complaint.
His plan also involved giving poisoned candy to Jewish schoolchildren in Brooklyn, where his grandmother lives, according to prosecutors.
Chkhikvishvili had no idea the person he was trying to recruit and kill people with candies was an undercover FBI agent, prosecutors said.
Chkhikvishvili “encouraged others” to commit violent acts on behalf of his cult, the “Maniac Murder Cult,” since July 2022, according to prosecutors, who said he visited his grandmother in Brooklyn that month.
His group is “an international racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist group,” prosecutors said.
Chkhikvishvili was arrested July 6 in Chișinău, Moldova, after an international request for his arrest was issued, according to prosecutors.
A federal indictment charges him with a conspiracy to solicit violent felonies, solicitation of violent felonies, distribution of information pertaining to the making and use of an explosive device, and transmission of threatening communications.
The indictment was returned July 15 in Brooklyn, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York announced July 16.
Information regarding Chkhikvishvili’s legal representation wasn’t immediately available.
“The defendant sought to recruit others to commit violent attacks and killings in furtherance of his Neo-Nazi ideologies,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement.
“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,” Peace said.
‘I see USA as big potential’
Chkhikvishvili’s cult includes accused members in the U.S. and overseas, according to prosecutors.
The group “promotes violence and violent acts against racial minorities, the Jewish community and other groups it deems ‘undesirables,’” prosecutors said.
In September, the undercover agent messaged Chkhikvishvili, asking if someone had to apply to join the group, according to prosecutors.
“Well yes we ask people for brutal beating, arson/explosion or murder vids on camera,” Chkhikvishvili is accused of responding.
He also said “‘(p)oisoning and arson are best options for murder,’ and suggested also considering a larger ‘mass murder’ within the United States,” according to prosecutors.
In messaging the undercover officer about recruiting people to join his cult, Chkhikvishvili wrote: “I see USA as big potential because accessibility to firearms and other resources.”
He’s accused of also trying to involve an accused leader of another Neo-Nazi group to commit violence, prosecutors said.
The ‘Hater’s Handbook’
A manifesto Chkhikvishvili has shared to cult members and others, called the “Hater’s Handbook,” encourages racial attacks, “ethnic cleansing,” school shootings and involving children in mass violence in the U.S., according to prosecutors.
He’s accused of sharing this manifesto since at least September 2021.
In November 2023, when officials said Chkhikvishvili shared the poisoned candy plan with the undercover FBI agent, he also gave instructions on how to make bombs and mixing poisons with deadly gasses, prosecutors said.
The instructions were detailed in manuals received by the undercover officer, including ones connected to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), prosecutors said.
The manual with instructions on mixing poisons and gasses discussed doing so “to further the cause of ‘Islamic jihad,’” according to the criminal complaint.
Chkhikvishvili wanted the undercover agent to create poison and lace candy as part of the scheme involving giving out the candies in New York City and to Jewish schoolchildren, prosecutors said.
He hoped the attack would be “bigger” than the one carried out by accused Neo-Nazi Anders Behring Breivik in Norway in 2011 in which 77 people were killed, according to prosecutors.
Chkhikvishvili is also accused of bragging about committing hate crimes and killing people when he stayed with his grandmother in Brooklyn in 2022, prosecutors said.
If he’s convicted on all counts against him, he could be sentenced up to 50 years in prison, according to prosecutors.
FBI Acting Assistant Director in Charge Christie M. Curtis said “the swift disruption” of Chkhikvishvili emphasizes how the agency “will use every resource in our power to ensure the safety of the American people.”
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