A dual U.S.-Israeli citizen was arraigned on federal hate crime and religious-obstruction charges for making multiple bomb and active shooter threats against Jewish institutions across Florida, the Justice Department announced.
Michael Ron David Kadar, 27, faces charges in the Middle District of Florida alleging he made multiple calls in early 2017 relaying bomb and active shooter threats to Jewish Community Centers throughout the state, including preschool programs operating at those facilities, prosecutors said. The threats forced temporary closures, evacuations and lockdowns at the targeted facilities and triggered emergency law enforcement responses, though no actual explosives were found, according to the indictment.
Kadar also faces separate charges in the District of Columbia for threats made against the Israeli Embassy and the Anti-Defamation League’s Washington offices, and in the Middle District of Georgia for cyberstalking and conveying false information to police about an alleged hostage situation at a residence in Athens, the Justice Department said.
Kadar arrived in the United States on June 18 following extradition from Norway, where he had been detained at the request of the United States, prosecutors said. He had traveled to Norway after serving a sentence in Israel for related conduct.
“The alleged crimes stand out for their cruelty and for the harm they caused to the Jewish community,” Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said in a statement. “When technology is exploited to terrorize houses of worship and community centers, it is an attack on religious liberty and public safety.”
U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe for the Middle District of Florida said the alleged conduct caused widespread fear in the region’s Jewish community and would not be tolerated. “Targeting individuals, groups, or institutions for their religious beliefs is contradictory to the freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution and against the law,” Kehoe said.
The hate crime charges each carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Bomb threat charges carry a maximum of 10 years, and interstate threat charges carry a maximum of five years. Kadar could also face court-ordered restitution if convicted, prosecutors said.
The case was investigated by the FBI’s Tampa, Washington and Atlanta field offices. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs provided significant assistance, and the department acknowledged the assistance of Norwegian authorities, according to the agency.
An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
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