Former FIU student convicted of cyber harassing New York family

MIAMI – On Nov. 7, a federal jury found a former Florida International University (FIU) student guilty of three counts of cyber harassment. 

Anthony Brillante II, 35, of Miami, a student at FIU during most of the time of the crimes, spoofed hundreds of different phone numbers to send three victims—his cousin, her husband, and their 12-year-old daughter—tens of thousands of phone calls and text messages, including countless explicit threats to kill them over a 15-month period between 2021 and 2022. 

Brillante texted two of his victims that he would shoot them in the face, run them over with a car, and even messaged the minor victim that he planned to kill her parents, had “been practicing at the range,” and he thought he was “a pretty good shot.”

Brillante’s cellphones revealed he contemplated bribing a law enforcement officer in his quest to find his victims’ new phone numbers after they changed them due to the spam calls and threatening text messages. They also demonstrated his interest in buying guns and a silencer, and his disregard for multiple law enforcement warnings to stop the threats—even texting his brother “idk is threatening to kill a child different…lol.”

U.S. District Judge Donald L. Graham is scheduled to sentence Brillante on Jan. 24, 2024. Brillante faces up to 20 years in prison.

U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida and Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey B. Veltri of the FBI, Miami Field Office, announced the convictions.

FBI Miami investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph Egozi and Alexandra D. Comolli are prosecuting it. 

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 22-cr-20493.

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