NEWARK, N.J. – A Georgia man was sentenced today to 14 months in prison for making interstate threats to an executive officer of a New Jersey based company, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced.
Alan Wallace, 59, of Cumming, Georgia, previously pleaded guilty by videoconference before U.S. District Judge Claire C. Cecchi to an information charging him with one count of transmitting interstate threats.
According to the documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
From January 2021 to March 2021, Wallace, a former employee of the victim company, sent threatening email communications to the victim, an executive officer of that company, which was a publicly traded company with headquarters in New Jersey. The victim’s company email account received the emails every few days beginning on Jan. 11, 2021, and continuing through early March 2021, with more sporadic emails arriving thereafter. The emails were sent from an anonymous email service.
The emails threatened violence to victim and the victim’s family if the company’s stock did not exceed a certain share value within 30 days. An email received on Feb. 5, 2021, with the subject line “Blood Bath,” read: “… it seems you don’t care about your family. This will be an absolute blood bath if stock isn’t over $200 in 2 weeks. Your hurt [sic] so many, and now it is your turn to experience it.”
In addition to the prison term, Judge Cecchi sentenced Wallace to two years of supervised release and fined him $10,000.
U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited special agents of the FBI, including the FBI’s Cyber Crimes Task Force, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge James E. Dennehy in Newark, with the investigation leading to today’s sentencing.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony P. Torntore of the U.S. Attorney’s Cybercrime Unit in Newark.