Stoughton Man Pleads Guilty to Serial Bomb Threats

BOSTON – A Stoughton man pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Boston to emailing bomb threats to multiple schools and universities in three different states. 

Anthony Rae, 25, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani to five counts of sending bomb threats.  A sentencing date has not been scheduled. 

Over the course of nine months, Rae used several different email accounts to send bomb threats to educational institutions in three different states.  Rae began in October 2014 when he sent two emails from a Gmail account he created threatening to bomb an elementary school in Chicago, Ill., and several public schools in Norwood, Mass.  Subsequently, Rae hacked his mother’s Hotmail account and used it to send two separate bomb threats to his own school – ITT Technical Institute in Norwood. 

In June 2015, law enforcement officers obtained a search warrant for Rae’s residence and seized numerous electronic devices.  The following day, Rae used a computer available to tenants of his apartment complex to continue his bomb threat spree – sending a bomb threat to Rhode Island College in Providence.  On June 19, 2015, he was arrested and charged in state court for the Massachusetts’ threats.  In October 2015, Rae was charged federally by criminal complaint. 

The charging statute provides for a sentence of no greater than 10 years in prison, three years supervised release and a fine of $250,000.  Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties.  Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. 

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz and Harold H. Shaw, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division, made the announcement today.  This case was also investigated by the Chicago Police Department’s Arson Section, Norwood and Stoughton Police Departments, Rhode Island State Police Computer Crimes Unit, and the Rhode Island College and North Carolina State University Campus Police Departments.  Significant assistance was also provided from the Massachusetts MetroLEC Cyber Crimes Unit and the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office.  Assistant United States Attorney Jordi de Llano of Ortiz’s Criminal Division is prosecuting the case.