Wednesday, July 18, 2012

New Jersey Man Indicted for Making Online Threats Against Wegmans CEO and President


ROCHESTER, NY—U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced that Hans Ni, 31, of Trenton, New Jersey, was charged in a two-count indictment with transmitting interstate threats against the CEO and president of Wegmans Food Market. Each of the charges carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison, a $250,000, fine or both.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard A. Resnick, who is handling the case, stated that the defendant, a New Jersey resident and former Wegmans employee, is accused of sending threats to kill and murder both the chief executive officer and the president of Wegmans. The threats were sent over the Internet from a fictitious e-mail account from a library in New Jersey. The fictitious e-mail account was in the name of the defendant’s former supervisor at Wegmans, who had been involved in the defendant’s termination from Wegmans in 2005.

A date for the defendant’s arraignment on the charges has not yet been scheduled.

The indictment is the culmination of an investigation on the part of special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Cyber Crimes Task Force, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Christopher M. Piehota; Cyber Crimes Task Force officers from the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, under the direction of Sheriff Patrick O’Flynn; and the Rochester Police Department, under the direction of Chief James Shephard.

The fact that a defendant has been charged with a crime is merely an accusation, and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

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