|
November 21, 2003
The United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California announced that Charles T. Booher, 44, of Sunnyvale, was arrested by FBI agents in Sunnyvale yesterday morning on a criminal complaint charging him with making death threats against employees of a Canadian Internet advertising company in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 875(c) (Threatening Interstate or Foreign Communications).
According to the affidavit supporting the criminal complaint, from May to July 2003, Mr. Booher repeatedly made threats by email and telephone against employees of the Canadian company which Mr. Booher wrongly believed to be the source of unsolicited email advertising he had received about penile enlargement medication. In particular, the affidavit describes the following threats, among others:
•In a May 31 email, Mr. Booher stated that he was "sending a package full of Anthrax spores to your address" and would "put a bullet in your head"
•In a June 14 email, Mr. Booher threatened to first "disable" a named employee by a "quick 22 calibre shot to [his] lower spine," then torture him with a "power drill and ice pick" after subduing him with "duck tape and plastic shrink wraps."
•In a voice mail message, Mr. Booher threatened to castrate all employees kill them "with a shotgun and thirty rounds of ammunition and a hunting rifle" if they failed to "get your [profanity] popups off my screen."
•In another voicemail message, Mr. Booher informed the employees that he had "a nice collection of weapons" and would "hunt [them] down" in "sunny Canada" unless they removed him from an "email list."
According to the affidavit, Mr. Booher persisted in making these threats even after Sunnyvale Police Department officers visited him and ordered him to cease.
Mr. Booher, who faces a maximum statutory penalty of five years imprisonment and a $250,000 on the charge, was released on a $75,000 bond by U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard Seeborg in San Jose. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for December 11, 2003 at 2:00 p.m. before U.S. Magistrate Judge Howard R. Lloyd in San Jose.
A complaint simply contains allegations against an individual and, as with all defendants, Mr. Booher must be presumed innocent unless and until convicted.
In separate and unrelated cases as part of the Justice Department's Operation Cyber Sweep (see companion press release), two defendants pled guilty to the trafficking in counterfeit computer software on November 10, 2003, before U.S. District Court Judge Ronald M. Whyte. The defendants, Malinda Chan and Li Jun Lei, each pled guilty to Superseding Informations charging trafficking in counterfeit computer software products in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2320(a). As part of their plea agreements, Ms. Chan and Ms. Lei each agreed to the forfeiture of approximately $30,000 of proceeds from their criminal activities. Each faces a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment and a $2 million fine, although the actual sentences will be determined by the United States Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of factors, and will be imposed in the discretion of the judge. Sentencing before Judge Whyte is set for Ms. Lei on February 17, 2004 at 9:00 a.m., and for Ms. Chan on February 24, 2003 at 9:00 a.m.
These investigations were overseen by the Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property (CHIP) Unit of the United States Attorney's Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher P. Sonderby, Chief of the CHIP unit, is prosecuting the cases against Ms. Chan and Ms. Lei. Assistant U.S. Attorney Shashi Kewalramani from the CHIP unit is prosecuting the case against Mr. Booher.
A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney's Office's website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can.
All press inquiries to the U.S. Attorney's Office should be directed to Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew J. Jacobs at (415) 436-7181.
|
|
