Neo-Nazi cult leader who plotted NYC attack on minorities using Santa costume hauled to US for justice
The leader of the neo-Nazi “Maniac Murder Cult,” who plotted to attack New York City on New Year’s Eve using a goon dressed as Santa Claus, was hauled to the US to face charges — as the feds said his hateful screeds succeeded in radicalizing Americans into committing violence.
Georgian national Michail “Commander Butcher” Chkhikvishvili, 21, inspired “multiple senseless killings” around the world, including the deadly Antioch High School shooting in January — where a radicalized ROTC cadet gunned down a 16-year-old teen girl in Nashville, according to a letter from the Justice Department Friday.
Prosecutors said that the Nashville shooter, 17-year-old Solomon Henderson, had proclaimed in audio recordings before the attack that he was “taking action on behalf of MKY” and had explicitly mentioned Chkhikvishvili by name.
The feds also said that Chkhikvishvili was connected to a Turkey knife attack where a crazed Turkish teen wearing Nazi paraphernalia livestreamed himself stabbing five outside a mosque in August 2024.
Chkhikvishvili, who was arrested last year in Moldova, was extradited to the US on Thursday — and pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Friday in Brooklyn Federal court on multiple felony counts, including solicitation of hate crime.
In a 22-page criminal complaint, prosecutors detailed Chkhikvishvili’s role as a leader and recruiter within the “Maniac Murder Cult,” a Russia and Ukraine-based neo-Nazi group that promotes violence against racial minorities, Jewish people and other so-called “undesirables.”
Chkhikvishvili, who lived with his grandmother in Brooklyn in 2022, published multiple editions of a manifesto called the “Hater’s Handbook,” in which he encouraged others to commit school shootings and other mass terror attacks, while offering how-tos in order to pull off attacks, according to the indictment.
His manifesto shared by the alleged stabbed in Turkey, according to the filing — which also pegs Chkhikvishvili to another livestream murder in Romania in April 2022.
Chkhikvishvili, who was arrested in Moldova last year, allegedly tried to plan a hate attack with one of his pal’s donning a Santa Clause costume who would hand out poison-laced candy to minorities across New York City.
The plot was foiled when the person he solicited for the attack was actually an undercover FBI agent.
He also planned a similar position candy stunt targeting Jewish school children in Brooklyn — and sent information on how to make bombs and ricin-based poison using castor beans, according to court documents.
“The defendant has consistently demonstrated that he is capable of orchestrating deadly attacks from behind a computer screen at home,” the feds said in the filing. “Moreover, the defendant has repeatedly stated that he has committed acts of violence and that he intends to commit more. The Court should take the defendant at his word and detain him in the interest of public safety.”
Brooklyn Federal Magistrate Judge Peggy Kuo ordered Chkhikvishvili on the prosecution’s request finding that the mad man poses a danger to society and is considered a flight risk.
Chkhikvishvili’s attorney, Sam Gregory, and asked the judge for a psychological evaluation and to put the alleged neo-Nazi under suicide watch at the Metropolitan Detention Center.
The judge ordered Chkhikvishvili back to court for a status conference on June 11.
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