A Georgian white supremacist group leader pleaded guilty on Monday to planning racial mass killings, including a plot to poison New York City Jewish school children, according to the US Justice Department, the criminal complaint, and past statements by the US embassy in Moldova.
Maniac Murder Cult (MKY) leader Michail Chkhikvishvili, 22, also known as “Commander Butcher,” pleaded guilty to soliciting hate crimes and providing instructions to make bombs and ricin to further his organization’s goals of accelerationism (the advancement of radical social change), ethnic cleansing, and racial supremacy.
He faces a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison.
Then-20-year-old Chkhikvishvili attempted in 2023 to solicit, unbeknownst to him, an undercover FBI agent to commit bombings and arson against Jews and racial minorities.
The agent was told that they could apply to join MKY by providing videos of murder, brutal beatings, arson, or bombings. Videos posted by MKY members in private chats allegedly depicted beatings, stabbings, and other assaults.
“Poisoning and arson are the best options for murder,” Chkhikvishvili allegedly said.
The neo-Nazi leader plotted a New Year’s Eve mass casualty attack in NYC involving an operative dressed as Santa Claus handing out poisoned candy to racial minorities.
In January, the plan evolved to target the Brooklyn Jewish community, schools, and children with ricin-based poisons on a Jewish holiday.
Chkhikvishvili provided materials and instructions to the undercover FBI agent on how to create the poison. He reportedly wanted the attack to be a “bigger action than Breivik,” referring to Norwegian neo-Nazi Anders Behring Breivik, who murdered 77 people in a 2011 Norway mass shooting and bombing.
FBI director Kash Patel said in a statement that with the guilty plea, Chkhikvishvili admitted to his “horrific plot targeting Jewish people and racial minorities.”
Since 2021, Chkhikvishvili has distributed his Hater’s Handbook manifesto to MKY members and other radicals. The handbook encourages followers to commit school shootings, use child suicide bombers, and execute vehicle rammings against minorities during outdoor events.
In the document, the MKY leader claimed to have committed murders for his group’s objectives. The handbook is a key tool in the group’s radicalization and recruitment efforts.
“I can proudly say I’ve murdered for the white race and am willing to bring more chaos to this rotten world. This book is for readers who are cruel warriors or are willing to become one and are ready to take massive actions,” read the handbook, according to the criminal complaint.
“Our main goal is to spread the flames of Lucifer and continue his mission of ethnic cleansing... incredible drive of purification.”
Chkhikvishvili used Telegram to convince others to commit atrocities
Chkhikvishvili lived with his grandmother in Brooklyn in 2022, where he continued to urge others to commit atrocities on Telegram. Besides his attempted grooming of the FBI operative, he tried in 2022 to conspire with another neo-Nazi group to commit violent acts in the city.
He had consulted with the leader of the Feuerkrieg Division on how they could transport unmarked firearms into the country, bragging that “MKY is the only group so far that has done so many kills.”
Further, Chkhikvishvili bragged to his counterpart that he had worked at a private rehabilitation facility where he was “paid to torture dying Jews.”
“I think I almost killed him today, actually,” said the suspect. “If he dies soon, that’s killstrike on me [sic].”
Chkhikvishvili was extradited from Moldova to the US on May 22 after being arrested in Chișinau in July. Patel said that the extradition showed that “no matter where you are, if you try to harm our citizens, the FBI and our partners will find you and bring you to justice.”
US attorney Joseph Nocella, Jr. underscored that Chkhikvishvili’s incitement had resulted in “real-world violence,” a stark reminder of the serious consequences of such extremist ideologies.
The US Justice Department said that a 17-year-old Nashville school shooter live-streamed his January attack and attributed his actions in part to MKY.
Last August, another person live-streamed themselves stabbing several people outside an Eskisehir mosque in Turkey. He wore a tactical vest emblazoned with Nazi symbols and posted links to the Hater’s Handbook and a manifesto referencing Chkhikvishvili.
In March, 19-year-old Nevin Thunder Young was arrested by the Manitoba Royal Canadian Mounted Police for a spate of antisemitic vandalism in Winnipeg, which included swastikas and references to MKY.