Businessman admits threats to regulators

A Long Island man admitted Monday he had threatened the lives of more than 40 financial regulators, including top officials of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the organizations that help oversee the nation's commodities and futures trading.

Vincent McCrudden, 50, who lived in Long Beach and Dix Hills, made the admissions as part of a plea deal shortly before the scheduled start of his trial in U.S. District Court in Central Islip on two counts of transmission of threats to injure.

McCrudden, who has worked in the financial markets for years, had insisted since his January arrest by FBI agents that he was not guilty.

But McCrudden apparently changed his mind after federal prosecutors said they discovered new evidence late Friday of other McCrudden death threats supporting their case.

He could face up to 10 years in prison but, under the plea deal, is more likely to be locked up for 27 to 33 months.

In a statement admitting guilt to the two charges, McCrudden, who has a long history of clashing with financial regulators, apologized to the targets of his threats, as well as to his own family and law-enforcement officials.

"I had no intention to injure or bodily harm anyone," McCrudden told U.S. District Judge Denis Hurley. "I recognize that a reasonable person would [think they were being threatened]. I was trying to stay under the First Amendment. . . . I realize now that I hadn't."

McCrudden was arrested six months ago, shortly after six people, including a federal judge, were killed, and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was wounded by a gunman in Arizona.

"This defendant crossed the line when he directly threatened to kill public officials who were working to keep our financial markets fair and open, and invited others to join him," Eastern District U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch said in a statement.

One of the counts to which McCrudden pleaded guilty said he had posted an "execution list" online naming more than 40 financial regulators, according to federal prosecutors Christopher Caffarone and James McMahon.

The posting offered rewards of up to $100,000 for personal information on their whereabouts and "proof of punishment against these criminals," prosecutors had said.

McCrudden's attorney, Bruce Barket, said his client was engaging in political commentary, and those named should not have taken McCrudden's postings seriously.

The second count accused McCrudden of sending an email, from a Singapore hotel, stating, "It wasn't a question of 'if' I was going to kill you, it was just a question of when." The email was ostensibly from Gary Gensler, chairman of the Commodities Futures Trading Corp., to Daniel Driscoll, chief operating officer of the National Futures Association.

Defense attorney Barkett had contended the email was sent on a general line that could have been accessed by anyone.

But in court filings over the weekend, prosecutors said that a newly discovered posting threatening Driscoll and other regulators was uncovered, and that it had been sent from a line "dedicated exclusively" to McCrudden's hotel room.That posting said that 250,000 Euros [roughly $345,000] would be paid to anyone "with proof of killing" Driscoll or other officials of the National Futures Association, prosecutors said.