FBI: Stock Trader Threatened SEC Officials

Jan. 14, 2011 — -- The head of a New York asset management firm who prosecutors said put a price on the heads of financial regulatory officials has been arrested. Vincent McCrudden was picked up at Newark Liberty Airport Thursday night upon his return to United States from Singapore.

McCrudden, who managed accounts controlled by Alnbri Management LLC, is charged with threatening to kill 47 current and former officials of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and other agencies who had been pursuing fraud cases against him.

In an e-mail to a CFTC attorney handling one of the cases, according to court records, McCrudden wrote, "I am going to do this my way now and you, you corrupt ... piece of s*** are the first on my list!"

In other profanity-laden e-mails, prosecutors say, McCrudden compared financial regulatory agencies to al Qaeda, threatened to "execute revenge" and told financial industry officials they "should be executed."

On his website, the FBI says, McCrudden offered rewards of up to $100,000 "for personal information" about his targets and suggested Americans "go buy a gun."

"He's certainly not going to hurt anybody," McCrudden's lawyer, Bruce Barket, told ABC News. "He's short-tempered and he's ill mannered. His creative writing needs some work. But the idea that this is anything other than a guy spouting off is just silly."

Word of the alleged threats comes after the shootings in Tucson and, Barket conceded, the timing "is particularly bad."

Barket said McCrudden was acquitted of mail fraud in 2003 but became upset when "the whole alphabet soup of financial regulation decided to pursue him in various ways."