Florida Man Arrested on Columbus Federal Charge that He Sent Threatening E-Mails

Keith L. Bennett, Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the Cincinnati Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Gregory G. Lockhart, U.S. Attorney, Southern District of Ohio, announced that FBI agents at Sarasota, Florida have arrested Kyle Jeffrey Tschiegg, age 38, of 3230 McIntosh Road, Sarasota, FL 34232 as the result of a federal arrest warrant issued by the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Ohio, Columbus, which charged Tschiegg with a violation of Title 18, U.S. Code Section 875 ( c ), Interstate Transmission of Threatening Communications and False Statements. Tschiegg was arrested at his father’s home where he also works this morning without incident. The Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office assisted in the arrest and throughout the investigation for the last several months.

The federal complaint filed at Columbus alleges that since October 2007 Tschiegg has sent over 180 e-mail messages received by as many as 3,500 people and made over 30 telephone calls to victims in Columbus, Florida and Kansas. Among those allegedly threatened by Tschiegg is a Florida state senator. The complaint alleges that Tschiegg holds himself out as a “computer and network security professional.” Tschiegg is further alleged to have used vulnerabilities in email servers to reflect e-mails through those servers to appear as if the e-mail originated from the server. He is also alleged to have seized control of e-mail accounts of others. Finally he is alleged to have made threats by creating Yahoo! groups, establishing himself as the moderator of those groups, entered victim e-mail addresses into the group and then sent a single threatening e-mail, appearing to originate from a victim’s e-mail server, to all members of the group.

Among the threats Tschiegg is alleged to have made are the following: a threat to come to a Columbus company and “start shooting the whole place up;” and an e-mail to an e-mail account wherein he claimed a friend of the account holder had been killed and threatening to destroy the victim’s computer if the victim did not send at least $3,000 to an address.

SAC Bennett noted the sophisticated techniques allegedly utilized by Tschiegg in the pending complaint. He stated that the FBI is firmly committed to using the expertise of the Bureau’s cyber personnel to combat such crime.

Tschiegg will have an initial appearance in the United States District Court in the Middle District of Florida in Tampa this afternoon. The U.S. Magistrate Judge at that hearing will determine if Tschiegg will remain in custody and the terms of any removal to Ohio.

The public is reminded that criminal complaints contain only allegations of criminal misconduct and that a defendant is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.