Former St. Thomas Student Pleads Guilty To Hoax Bomb Threat Against The University's St. Paul Campus

United States Attorney Erica H. MacDonald today announced the guilty plea of RAY GHANSHAM PERSAUD, 21, to calling in a bomb threat to the University of St. Thomas on September 17, 2019. PERSAUD entered his guilty plea this morning before Judge Eric C. Tostrud in U.S. District Court in St. Paul, Minnesota.

According to the defendant’s guilty plea and documents filed with the court, on three separate occasions – April 17, 2019; August 20, 2019; and September 17, 2019 – PERSAUD, who was at the time an undergraduate student at the University of St. Thomas, called in to the University’s main switchboard and falsely stated that there was a bomb on the St. Paul campus. The three bomb threats caused substantial disruption to the University, including the evacuation of campus buildings and a child care center, re-routing of traffic on nearby streets, and a full response by the University’s Public Safety personnel. PERSAUD admitted that on the dates he called in the bomb threats he had failed to complete his homework and was unprepared for class. PERSAUD pleaded guilty to count three of the indictment, charging him with the September 17, 2019, bomb threat. At the time of sentencing, the U.S. Attorney’s Office will ask the Court to dismiss the April 17, 2019, and August 20, 2019, charges.

This case is the result of an investigation conducted by the FBI and the St. Paul Police Department.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney John Docherty.

Defendant Information:                                                                                                                     

RAY GHANSHAM PERSAUD, 21

Blaine, Minn.

Convicted:

• Using an instrumentality of interstate commerce to maliciously make a threat to damage and destroy any building, by means of explosives, 1 count

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United States Attorney’s Office, District of Minnesota: (612) 664-5600