21-year-old Georgian man charged in a four-count federal indictments including acts of mass violence and soliciting hate crimes

July 23, 2024

Twenty-one-year-old Georgian man Michail Chkhikvishvili has been charged in a four-count federal indictment including acts of mass violence and soliciting hate crimes.

Chkhikvishvili, who comes from the Republic of Georgia, a former Soviet Republic country at the intersection of Europe and Asia, is the alleged leader of a group called MKY, the Maniac Murder Cult, and was arrested in Chișinău, Moldova on July 6, 2024.

In 2021, 16 members of Maniac Murder Cult were arrested and accused of planning to carry out terrorist attacks. Amongst the arrested was the group’s founder, Ukraine-based Yegor Krasnov, who is reported to have incited followers to commit terrorist attacks in neighboring Russia.

Chkhikvishvili is also known as "Michael," "Mishka," and "Butcher," and has reportedly published a manifesto titled: “The Haters Handbook,” a third edition of which was circulated in the fall of 2023. In the manifesto, Chkhikvishvili, under his penname, Commander Butcher, writes that he has "murdered for the white race" and states the grounds main goal "is to spread flames of Lucifer and continue his mission of ethnic cleansing, great drive of purification."

According to court documents, violent actions against minorities included school shootings and suicide bombings in highly populated areas and at large events and gatherings, including potential attacks in the U.S, specifically New York, where Chkhikvishvili’s grandmother resides, in Brooklyn.

Chkhikvishvili’s said of the U.S: “I see USA as big potential because accessibility to firearms and other resources.”

Travel tickets show that Chkhikvishvili had travelled to the U.S various times in 2022, and documents show an ex-girlfriend, whom he visited in California, spoke with FBI agents regarding Chkhikvishvili and the MKY group.

An FBI agent involved with and investigating the group describes them as: “a Russian- and Ukrainian-based racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist (“RMVE”) group with members in the United States and around the world. MKY adheres to a Neo-Nazi accelerationist ideology and promotes violence and violent acts against racial minorities, the Jewish community, and other groups it deems “undesirables.” MKY members share a common goal of challenging social order and governments via terrorism and violent acts that promote fear and chaos.”

Authorities allege that the suspect planned mass attacks in New York City, targeting racial minorities, Jewish people, and the homeless population.

Chkhikvishvili also allegedly aspired to be “bigger than” Norwegian neo-Nazi, Anders Breivik, responsible for a 2011 mass attack that saw 77 people dead.

A disturbing revelation was made in court documents, describing Chkhikvishvili's employment by an Orthodox Jewish family in the summer of 2022. The family hired him as a carer at a rehabilitation facility in Brooklyn, where he was assigned to care for a family member, who has since passed. Electronic messages between Chkhikvishvili and a member of another Neo-Nazi group contain conversations where Chkhikvishvili brags about harming the ailing Jewish patient in his care.

The conversation also discussed anonymity and VPNs regarding submission tapes from potential new members, or “maniacs,” videos believed to be acts of violence against minorities, or as he called them, “low race targets.”

“Just explain to them what membership in MKY means and what actions should be recorded in good quality Beating, Arson, Killing // Beating brutal one not regular,” Chkhikvishvili wrote. “We ask people for brutal beating, arson/explosion or murder vids on camera," adding "Poisoning and arson are best options for murder.”

Instructions of how to maim and kill using various methods, as well as how to evade law enforcement afterwards, were shared as documents titled “cold weapon” and “manhunt.”

In conversation with an undercover FBI agent online posing as a potential recruit, authorities say Chkhikvishvili shared information on how to make explosives, as well as threatening violence. A particularly disturbing plan, according to prosecutors, involved inciting the undercover agent to dress as Santa Claus on New Years Eve of 2023, who would then hand out poisoned candy to Jewish children on the streets of New York on New Year’s Eve.

Around the time of the Santa Claus plan, for which Chkhikvishvili gave detailed instructions, including lying on resumes, how to get hired, and plans for before and after the attack, he also talked about extracting ricin from castor beans to make poison. He planned to use this poison in a Jewish school or on a Jewish holiday. “Dead Jewish kids,” he wrote.

Last week the United States Attorney’s Office Eastern District of New York posted a statement titled: Georgian National Charged with Soliciting Hate Crimes and a Mass Casualty Attack in New York City, in which they detailed Michail Chkhikvishvili's intentions.

The charges include Conspiracy to Solicit Felonies, Solicitation of Violent Felonies, Distribution of Information Pertaining to the Making and Use of an Explosive Device, Transmission of Threatening Communications. The indictment can be read in full HERE.

The statement details that Chkhikvishvili was arrested in Moldova where he is currently being held. Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York said of the arrest: “As alleged, the defendant sought to recruit others to commit violent attacks and killings in furtherance of his Neo-Nazi ideologies.”

“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. We will not hesitate to find and prosecute those who threaten the safety and freedoms of all members of our community, including members of minority communities, no matter where in the world these criminals might be hiding.”

The case is in the hands of the Office’s National Security and Cybercrime Section.

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