A New York man sued by the CFTC last month for registration violations has been arrested on criminal charges of threatening to kill 47 current or former market regulators, federal prosecutors said.
Vincent P. McCrudden, 49, who recently had been living in Singapore, was arrested yesterday by the FBI at Newark Liberty International Airport after returning to the United States.
The arrest occurred just five days after a gunman opened fire at an Arizona constituent event hosted by U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Giffords was critically wounded in the attack. U.S. District Judge John Roll and five others were shot and killed.
McCrudden was denied bail this afternoon in the alleged threats against regulators, some details of which U.S. Attorney Loretta E. Lynch of the Eastern District of New York released today.
“In this day and age, there is no such thing as an idle threat,” said Lynch. “Those who threaten injury or worse to the lives of others will be promptly investigated and vigorously prosecuted.”
On Sept. 30, prosecutors said, McCrudden sent an email to an employee of the National Futures Association (NFA) that made a death threat.
“[I]t wasn’t ever a question of ‘if’ I was going to kill you, it was just a question of when,” the email read, prosecutors said. “And now, that question has been answered. You are going to die a painful death.”
McCrudden also published an “Execution List” on his website. The list included the names of 47 current and former officials of the SEC, FINRA, NFA, and CFTC. Included on the list were the names of the “the Chairperson of the SEC, the Chairman of the CFTC, a former Acting Chairman and Commissioner of the CFTC, the Chairman and CEO of FINRA, the former chief of Enforcement at FINRA, and other employees of the NFA and CFTC,” prosecutors said.
“[T]hese people have got to go,” McCrudden wrote, prosecutors said. “And I need your help, there are just too many for me alone.”
And McCrudden “posted a $100,000 reward on his website for personal information of several government officials and proof that those officials were punished,” prosecutors charged.
On Dec. 16, according to the complaint, McCrudden sent a CFTC official an email with a subject line of, “You corrupt mother[*!&$$%]!”
The email went on to inform the official that he was “first on my list.”
McCrudden used the website to encourage others to “[g]o buy a gun” and take back the country. On the website, McCrudden wrote that he would lead by example, prosecutors said.
A top FBI official said the threats were “especially troubling.”
“Overt threats of the sort made by this defendant must be dealt with to the fullest extent of the law,” said Janice K. Fedarcyk, assistant director-in-charge of the FBI’s New York field office.
“The threats were direct, extreme, and specific, vowing to kill securities regulators and encouraging others to do the same,” Fedarcyk said. “The allegations, coming as they do during a period of national mourning in the wake of horrific violence done to public officials and others, are especially troubling.”