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Press Release

Maryland Man Pleads Guilty To Sending Threats Using Facebook

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Middle District of Florida

Jacksonville, Florida – Seyed Ali Soroushjou (38, Cockeysville, Maryland) has pleaded guilty to sending threatening communications online via Facebook. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison; a sentencing date has not yet been set. Soroushjou has been in federal custody since his arrest.

According to court documents, on August 29, 2016, a Jacksonville resident (Person A) contacted law enforcement to report that she had received threatening messages through Facebook from an individual she did not know who had identified himself by the user name “MobyDick NahanghaVahshi.” A subsequent investigation identified the user as Soroushjou and revealed that he had sent the messages in response to a photograph that Person A had posted on her Facebook page of her posing with three officers from the New York Police Department. In his first message to the victim, sent on August 24, 2016, Soroushjou threatened to assault the officers depicted in the photo. In a second message three days later, Soroushjou graphically stated that he intended to sexually assault Person A.

Following the execution of a search warrant at Soroushjou’s home in Maryland, he was arrested. Agents also seized three computer devices that he had used to access Person A’s Facebook account.

This case was investigated by the FBI. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney D. Rodney Brown.

Updated February 22, 2018

Topic
Cybercrime