Vincent McCrudden Wasn't Being Literal When He Put 47 US Regulators On His 'To Kill' List (Even Though He's Not The Only One Who Wants Them Dead)

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Remember Vincent McCrudden? He’s the guy who arrested in January after years spent threatening to murder, among others, Mary Schapiro, Richard Ketchum, Gary Gensler and various other SEC and CFTC officials. In one email to a CFTC staffer he wrote, “You fucking corrupt piece of shit! I have let so many of you fucking corrupt mother fuckers off the hook for doing this to my life. You my friend are not getting away with this. I am going to do this my way no and you, you corrupt mother fucking piece of shit are the first on my list! laugh mother fucker…I am going to make you a test case!” In another, vivid imagery involving a midget was used. In yet another, the chief operating officer of the NFA was told “It wasn’t ever a question of ‘if’ I was going to kill you, it was just of when.” For a while, McCrudden also had an "execution" list on his website and encouraged people to help him cross the 47 names off the list, telling them, "Go buy a gun, and let’s get to work in taking back our country from these criminals. I will be the first one to lead by example."

Vincent is set to be tried next week and his attorney has come up with a two part defense: 1) everyone wants to see US financial regulators dead. 2) McCrudden wasn't threatening so much as he was dialoguing about the flaws in the regulatory system.

McCrudden wants “to introduce evidence that there is an ardent and vocal community of people within the financial world who believe (rightly or wrongly) that these organizations are corrupt and/or inept,” his lawyer wrote in a court filing this month...McCrudden’s lawyer, Bruce A. Barket, said in a filing the information would put his client’s comments “in the context of an ongoing public discussion about the honesty and efficacy of the financial regulatory system” to determine whether they were true threats or political opinion.

Pretty simple, really. Not sure why anyone interpreted "You corrupt mother fucking piece of shit are the first on my list! I am going to make you a test case" as an actual threat. Anyway, if everyone who's thought similarly about not wanting to let "so many of [these] fucking corrupt mother fuckers off the hook" could come forward at this time, that'd be a big help.

Former Fund Manager Wants to Show Shared Hatred of Regulators at Trial [Bloomberg]

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Not Everyone Convinced Former Trader Meant "It Wasn't A Question Of If I Was Going To Kill You, Just Of When" In A Figurative Sense

A year or so a go, commodities trader Vincent McCrudden was arrested for some things he put on a company website and some emails he sent out. The former involved an "execution" list containing the names of a handful of financial regulators, which he asked readers to aid him in crossing off ("I need your help," he wrote. "There are just too many for me alone"). The latter included an email to a CFTC staffer that noted: “You fucking corrupt piece of shit! I have let so many of you fucking corrupt mother fuckers off the hook for doing this to my life. You my friend are not getting away with this. I am going to do this my way now and you, you corrupt mother fucking piece of shit are the first on my list! laugh mother fucker…I am going to make you a test case!” To that end, the chief operating officer of the NFA was told, “It wasn’t ever a question of ‘if’ I was going to kill you, it was just of when." Were these emails particularly colorful? Yes. Should anyone who received them (or had their name placed on The List) been actually worried about losing his/her life? McCrudden could see how maybe things might have been interpretted that way, but no. As he told a judge, “I wrote provocative language on my website that could have been perceived as threatening. I would never intentionally hurt or cause bodily harm to another human being." And yet, this is still happening: Vincent P. McCrudden, a former New York commodities trader, was sentenced to two years and four months in prison for threatening to kill federal financial regulators. McCrudden, 51, who pleaded guilty last year, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Denis R. Hurley in federal court in Central Islip, New York...McCrudden said he was being persecuted for fighting back against unfair regulatory actions that destroyed his career. In addition to trading commodities, he ran his own hedge funds...McCrudden’s legal and regulatory entanglements began in 2000, when he was criminally charged with masking shortfalls in statements to his hedge-fund investors. The government said he included in his results money he expected to get from a lawsuit after Sumitomo Corp. (8053) was accused of manipulating the copper market. Ex-Trader McCrudden Gets 28 Months in Prison for Threats [Bloomberg]