In June 2018, an American-Israeli teen living in Israel was convicted of making bomb threats against prominent Jewish community centers in America in exchange for Bitcoin.
19-year-old Michael Kadar was convicted in June by an Israeli court for crimes relating to bomb threats he made in exchange for thousands of dollars in Bitcoin. Kadar primarily targeted community centers, schools, shopping malls, police, stations, airlines, and airports, located all around the globe. Many of his targets had Jewish affiliations. During his arrest, Kadar earned himself an additional charge when he tried to grab a gun from a policewoman’s holster.
Kadar’s parents have blamed their son’s autism and mental illness for his crimes. “I did it out of boredom. It was like a game. I understand that it is wrong, and I am sorry and will not do it again,” Kadar said in a comment during pre-trial hearings. A team of psychiatrists found that Kadar was on the autism spectrum and that he additionally suffered from paranoid delusions. As a result, Kadar may not be able to understand the consequences of his actions.
In total, Kadar earned $240,000 in Bitcoin for making the threats. CNN reported in August that Kadar used the deep web, a portion of the internet that is not indexed by search engines, to solicit potential “clients.” If he is to be convicted in the United States, Kadar would face up to 20 years in prison for each hate crime and a maximum of 10 years for each bomb threat.
It is unclear at the moment if Kadar will be extradited to the United States. “We can’t ignore the fact that this whole trial is affected by the American pressure,” defense attorney Meir Ziv said in a statement. “They are expecting a conviction and the maximum sentence or an extradition to the U.S. The fact that he was tried in Israel prevented the extradition to the U.S.”
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