A 21-year-old Georgian national has been extradited from Moldova to the US, where he faces charges of soliciting hate crimes and acts of mass violence in New York.
Michail Chkhikvishvili was originally arrested in July 2024 in Moldova’s capital Chișinău, where he remained until his extradition to the US on 22 May 2025.
The following day, he was arraigned in federal court in Brooklyn, according to a US Justice Department press release. According to the Associated Press, Chkhikvishvili pled not guilty through attorney Samuel Gregory, who requested that Chkhikvishvili receive a psychiatric evaluation and be placed on suicide watch while in custody.
According to court documents, Chkhikvishvili was a leader of the Maniac Murder Cult — also known as Maniacs Murder Cult; Maniacs: Cult of Killing; MKY; MMC; and MKU — an ‘internationally racially-motivated violent extremist group’.
Since circa September 2021, Chkhikvishvili reportedly began distributing a manifesto known as the ‘Hater’s Handbook’ in which he wrote that he has ‘murdered for the white race’ while encouraging and instructing others to do the same in acts of mass violence and ‘ethnic cleansing’. The handbook specifically encouraged attacks on US soil.
The prosecution noted that a number of crimes have been connected to the handbook, including a mass stabbing outside a mosque in Eskişehir, Turkey in August 2024, as well as a January 2025 school shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, which killed a 16-year-old student.
In June 2022, Chkhikvishvili visited Brooklyn where he allegedly used Telegram to encourage others to commit violent hate crimes while also conspiring with the leader of a separate neo-Nazi group. He also made contact with an individual claiming to be a prospective recruit, but who was actually an undercover FBI employee.
In conversations with the undercover operative, Chkhikvishvili began planning ‘a mass casualty attack in New York City to take place on New Year’s Eve. The scheme involved an individual dressing up as Santa Claus and handing out candy laced with poison to racial minorities’. In January 2024, the plan evolved to specifically target Jewish children in Brooklyn.
‘These weren’t idle threats. They were detailed plans. This extradition demonstrates the reach and the determination of American law enforcement agencies to track down the most dangerous and depraved of criminals’, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.
In turn, US Attorney General Pam Bondi highlighted that ‘this case is a stark reminder of the kind of terrorism we face today: online networks plotting unspeakable acts of violence against children, families, and the Jewish community in pursuit of a depraved, extremist ideology’.
‘The Department of Justice will not tolerate hate-fueled violence, and we will pursue those who threaten innocent lives wherever they may be’, she added.
If convicted, Chkhikvishvili faces up to 20 years in prison for the ‘solicitation of violent felonies, including hate crime acts and transporting an explosive with intent to kill or injure’.
He faces additional sentences of up to five or 20 years for other crimes, including conspiring to solicit violent felonies, distributing information pertaining to the making and use of explosive devices and ricin poison, and transmitting threatening communications.
After years in academia, Xandie returned to Georgia to join OC Media. Her previous work with non-profits focused on Eurasian affairs, particularly queer and gender rights and green politics. She’s also a fan of foreign cinema, tea, and books (but not spilling tea on books).
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