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The New York trader accused of threatening to kill 47 financial officials, including the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, ‘fessed up in federal court yesterday, just as opening arguments in his criminal trail were set to start.
Vincent McCrudden — who had previously denied sending a menacing e-mail outlining plans to murder a high-ranking official of the National Futures Association — pleaded guilty to two counts of transmitting threats. He faces up to 10 years in prison.
The former hedge fund manager, who has a history of regulatory rage, told Central Islip Federal Judge Denis Hurley that he had intended the threats, including an execution list on his Web site, to be “provocative,” but that he had no intention of harming anyone.
McCrudden, 50, who has been in federal lockup since his January arrest at Newark Airport after a flight from Singapore, will remain jailed until his sentencing on Dec. 5.
The unexpected confession follows fresh evidence from federal prosecutors linking McCrudden to the vicious Sept. 30 e-mail to Dan Driscoll, the chief operating officer of the National Futures Association.
The new evidence would have shown that McCrudden used the same IP address from a hotel in Singapore to send the threatening e-mail as he did to make threats via Facebook.
In a Facebook posting from the same hotel in October, McCrudden allegedly offered $344,850 “to any group or organiziation [sic] with proof of killing” a group of regulators, including Driscoll.
In the anonymous e-mail to Driscoll, McCrudden said he hired trained assassins to kill Driscoll, whose “body will never be found” because it would be in “little bits and pieces.”
McCrudden tried to cover his tracks by sending the e-mail in the name of Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Gary Gensler, who was also on McCrudden’s hit list. Gensler had been scheduled to testify against McCrudden on Wednesday.