Georgian National Extradited from Moldova to Face Charges for Soliciting Hate Crimes and Planning Mass Casualty Attack in New York City

Handbook” to MKY members and others. The Hater’s Handbook encourages people to commit acts of mass violence. In the Hater’s Handbook, Chkhikvishvili states that he has “murdered for the white race” and encourages others to commit acts of mass violence and “ethnic cleansing.” For example, the Hater’s Handbook encourages its readers to commit school shootings and to use children to perpetrate suicide bombings and other mass killings targeting racial minorities. It also describes methods and strategies for committing mass “terror attacks,” including, for example, using vehicles to target “large outdoor festivals, conventions, celebrations, “parades,” and “pedestrian congested streets.” The Hater’s Handbook specifically encourages committing attacks within the United States.

In June 2022, Chkhikvishvili traveled to Brooklyn. As alleged, as early as July 2022, Chkhikvishvili repeatedly encouraged others, primarily via encrypted mobile messaging platforms, to commit violent hate crimes and other acts of violence on behalf of MKY. This included conspiring to solicit violent acts with the leader of a separate violent extremist Neo-Nazi group. It also included soliciting acts of mass violence in New York from an individual who claimed to be a prospective MKY recruit, but who, unbeknownst to Chkhikvishvili, was actually an undercover FBI employee (the UC).  

In a September 2023 conversation, the UC messaged Chkhikvishvili asking whether there was an application process to join MKY. The defendant responded, “we ask people for brutal beating, arson/explosion, or murder vids on camera.” Chkhikvishvili further stated that “[p]oisoning and arson are best options for murder,” and suggested also considering a larger “mass murder […]” within the United States. Chkhikvishvili advised the UC that the victims of these acts should be “low race targets.”

Beginning in approximately November 2023, Chkhikvishvili solicited the UC to commit violent crimes, such as bombings and arsons, for the purpose of harming racial minorities, Jewish individuals, and others. Chkhikvishvili provided detailed plans and materials such as bomb-making instructions and guidance on making Molotov cocktails to facilitate carrying out these crimes. In November 2023, Chkhikvishvili began planning a mass casualty attack in New York City to take place on New Year’s Eve. The scheme involved an individual dressing up as Santa Claus and handing out candy laced with poison to racial minorities. In January, the scheme evolved and Chkhikvishvili specifically directed the UC to target the Jewish community, Jewish schools, and Jewish children in Brooklyn with poison. Chkhikvishvili drafted step-by-step instructions to carry out the scheme and shared detailed manuals about creating and mixing lethal poisons and gases with the UC. He also instructed the UC on methods of making ricin-based poisons in powder and liquid form, including by extracting ricin from castor beans. Chkhikvishvili distributed materials linked to radical Islamist jihadist groups and designated foreign terrorist organizations such as ISIS. 

Chkhikvishvili wanted the planned attack to be a “bigger action than Breivik,” referring to Anders Behring Breivik, a Norwegian Neo‑Nazi who killed 77 people in a bombing and mass shooting in Norway in 2011. Meanwhile, Chkhikvishvili told others of his plan and claimed to have previously committed other hate crimes while living in Brooklyn in 2022. Chkhikvishvili boasted to others that he was “glad I have murdered,” and that he would “murder more” but “make others murder first.”

Chkhikvishvili’s solicitations of violence have resulted in multiple attacks and killings around the world. In August 2024, an individual livestreamed himself stabbing approximately five people outside of a mosque in Eskisehir, Turkey, wearing a tactical vest adorned in Nazi symbols. A manifesto attributed to the attacker included explicit references to Chkhikvishvili and to violent statements made by him. Before the attack, the attacker also distributed a link to the Hater’s Handbook, authored by Chkhikvishvili, and other violent propaganda.

The charges in the indictment are allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. If convicted, Chkhikvishvili faces a maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment for solicitation of violent felonies (including hate crime acts and transporting an explosive with intent to kill or injure), five years’ imprisonment for conspiring to solicit violent felonies, 20 years’ imprisonment for distributing information pertaining to the making and use of explosive devices and ricin poison, and five years’ imprisonment for transmitting threatening communications.

The government’s case is being handled by the Office’s National Security and Cybercrime Section. Assistant United States Attorneys Ellen H. Sise and Andrew D. Reich are in charge of the prosecution, with assistance from Trial Attorney Jennifer Levy of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section and Paralegal Specialists Wayne Colon and Rebecca Roth. The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division also provided assistance.

The Defendant:

MICHAIL CHKHIKVISHVILI (also known as “Mishka,” “Michael,” “Commander Butcher,” and “Butcher”)

Age: 21

Tbilisi, Georgia

E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 24-CR-286 (CBA)

chkhikvishvili_indictment.pdf