An Israeli-American hacker who was arrested in March 2017 and accused of inciting panic at numerous Jewish Community Centers via hoax bomb threats has been convicted in Israeli court.
The so-called "JCC Hoax Bomber," 19-year-old dual citizen Michael Ron David Kadar, was convicted on June 28 by the Tel Aviv District Court for making 2,000 bomb threats and spreading fear among Jewish institutions worldwide in early 2017, according to the Jerusalem Post. This includes phoned-in bomb threats at more than 50 Jewish Community Centers across the United States between January and March of 2017.
“JCC Association of North America and the JCC Movement are deeply gratified by this conviction," Doron Krakow, JCC Association of North America president and CEO, said in a media release. This guilty verdict makes clear that threats of terrorism against the Jewish community, no matter where those threats may originate, will not go unpunished. Law enforcement, at the local and federal levels in the U.S. and Canada, as well as in Israel, were – and remain – extraordinary partners and allies from the first threat until this conviction was delivered. ... More than a year after the first threats were received, our JCCs are safer and our communities more resolved than ever before."
Kadar's crimes include extortion by threat, sending fraudulent messages, conspiring to commit crimes, penetration of computer material, money laundering, attacking a policeman, unlawfully carrying a weapon and other offenses.
"I did it out of boredom," Kadar told psychiatrists of his crimes, the Post reported. "It was like a game. I understand that it is forbidden. ... I am sorry, I won't do it again."
Kadar hid the origin of his phone calls and his voice when calling in bomb threats, the Post reported. This included the use of long-range antennas and utilizing external internet infrastructures to hide his geographic location.
Kadar was only convicted of his crimes as an adult, the Post reported, and he may still be extradited to the United States for further prosecution.