Pasadena Woman Pleads Guilty to Stalking Campaign Against Victims and Threatening to Bomb U.S. Consulate in Vietnam

LOS ANGELES – A San Gabriel Valley woman pleaded guilty today to federal criminal charges for stalking a victim then impersonating him and his wife to further stalk government employees at a United States consulate in Vietnam, which she threatened to bomb.

Natalie Nguyen, 39, of Pasadena, pleaded guilty to one count of stalking and one count of threat by interstate commerce to kill another person and to damage and destroy buildings by fire and explosives.

Nguyen has been in federal custody since February 2024.

According to her plea agreement, Nguyen stalked a victim – identified in court documents as “T.H.” – from April 2023 to February 2024, sending emails threatening to kill him and his wife. One of the emails contained screenshots of a text conversation about paying a hitman $15,000 to kill the victim’s wife.

Nguyen also began stalking five employees at the U.S. consulate in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. At times, she impersonated T.H.’s wife, including in an August 2023 email in which she threatened to “bomb the [expletive] consular in Ho Chi Minh City.”

In October 2023, Nguyen - impersonating T.H. and using T.H.’s email account without permission - sent an email to three government employees at the U.S. consulate stating, “i wil [sic] kill every [expletive] one of you who has been delaying issuing my wife visa.”

In January 2024, Nguyen – impersonating T.H.’s wife – sent a message to U.S. officials through an online portal stating, “Device will be detonated at America consular in Saigon and in San Francisco. All of you will be exploded for causing my separation with my husband for this last year. Everything will be exploded around new year or after.”

The following month, Nguyen impersonated T.H. and sent an inquiry to a U.S. Embassy online portal threatening to explode grenades around the time of the lunar new year at the consulate. Several minutes later, Nguyen, impersonating T.H., sent an email to the Vietnamese consulate stating, “i have a grenade set to be exploded this lunar new year at the consulate. my wife is ready.”

United States District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett scheduled a June 18 sentencing hearing, at which time Nguyen will face a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison for the stalking count and up to 10 years in federal prison for the threats count.

The FBI investigated this matter with assistance from the Diplomatic Security Service.

Assistant United States Attorney Diane Roldán of the Violent and Organized Crime Section is prosecuting this case.