New Jersey Man Arrested for Making Online Threats Against Wegmans’ CEO and President

ROCHESTER, NY—U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Hans Ni, 30, of Trenton, New Jersey, was arrested and charged by criminal complaint with transmitting interstate threats against the CEO and president of Wegmans Food Market. The charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, or both.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard A. Resnick, who is handling the case, stated that according to the complaint, the defendant, a New Jersey resident and former Wegmans’ employee, sent death threats to both the chief executive officer and the president of Wegmans. Ni is alleged to have sent the threats over the Internet from a fictitious e-mail account from a library in New Jersey. The defendant was arrested on September 1, 2011 in New Jersey by agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. At a court appearance on September 2, 2011 in New Jersey, the defendant was ordered detained and is now in the process of being transferred to Rochester, New York.

The criminal complaint is the culmination of an investigation on the part of special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Cybercrimes Task Force, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Christopher M. Piehota, Cybercrimes task force officers from the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, under the direction of Sheriff Patrick O’Flynn, and the Rochester Police Department, under the direction of Chief James Shephard.

The fact that a defendant has been charged with a crime is merely an accusation and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.