COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A 39-year-old Florida man was sentenced Thursday for emailing threats to a company in Columbus.
Kyle Jeffrey Tschiegg, of Sarasota, Florida was sentenced to 90 months imprisonment for emailing threats including threats to cause a candidate to drop out of a race for statewide office in Florida, hacking into email accounts of individuals and companies, and using stolen identity information to commit computer crimes.
Tscheigg pleaded guilty in September to one count each of interstate transmission of threatening communications, interstate extortion, computer intrusion, and identity theft.
On August 4, 2008, Tscheigg sent an email to a Columbus company he picked at random and two company employees threatening to "start shooting the whole place up, blowing your heads off…"
In part, Tscheigg's email said, "I want to come to "RF" company in columbus and just start shooting the whole place up, blowing your heads off, and then I'm gonna go to "Pro" in sarasota and and kill all of them too, see ya soon!! Im looking forward to painting walls with brain matter:)"
A group of approximately 40 individuals and businesses received repeated email and telephone threats or harassment by Tschiegg. At one point, approximately 3,500 email accounts were being copied on the threatening emails.
Tschiegg used several methods to conceal his identity online including using his laptop computer to access the Internet through neighbors' unsecured, wireless networks in Sarasota.
Tschiegg also hacked into a Florida state legislator's email account in October 2008. He used personal information he found about the legislator on the Internet to reset the legislator's password. Less than two weeks before the November 4, 2008 election, Tscheigg sent two emails threatening to injure the legislator, her family and supporters unless she withdrew from the race.
Tscheigg has been in custody since FBI agents arrested him at his parents' Sarasota home on February 12, 2009.
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