Judge denies bail for man held in threats

A federal judge declined Monday to release on bail a Long Beach man accused of threatening the lives of more than 40 financial regulators.

U.S. District Judge Denis Hurley, in denying the bail request of Vincent McCrudden, who owned financial services companies in Dix Hills, ruled that newly revealed information did not necessarily weaken the prosecution's case.

McCrudden's attorney, Bruce Barket, of Garden City, had argued that the new evidence wasn't strong enough to hold McCrudden. He said that an email sent from Singapore in September threatening to kill a financial regulator based in Chicago came from a wireless IP address that numerous people, other than his client, could have accessed.

Federal Prosecutor Christopher Caffarone has said that the government had recently discovered that the address was available in the Singapore hotel that McCrudden was staying in at the time, and that the threat was made against a regulator with whom McCrudden had been feuding.

In denying bail, Hurley ruled for a second time that McCrudden was a danger to the community. He said, "I think [prosecutors] have a fairly good shot at this point" in convincing a jury that it was McCrudden who might have sent the threat.

But Hurley said he was not denying bail for McCrudden simply because of the IP evidence, but because of the seriousness of the alleged threats made to regulators.

Barket has argued that McCrudden, arrested in January by the FBI, had long felt he was being mistreated by regulators. But he said while his client's language might have been intemperate, he had no intention of carrying out any threats.

McCrudden's family has regularly attended hearings in the case to support him. In a statement released Monday, family members said "Vincent is not a threat to anyone. We are sure he is embarrassed about his language, as we all are, but he is not guilty of any wrongdoing."