Federal Bureau of Investigation - Albany Field Division - Press Release

Glenn T. Suddaby, United States Attorney for the Northern District of New York, makes the following announcement:

Christopher A. Moultrie, 43, of 23 Lewis Street, Johnson City, New York was sentenced today by Senior United States District Court Judge Thomas J. McAvoy in United States District Court, Binghamton, to a term of imprisonment of 30 months. Moutrie previously pled guilty to the felony crime of making a false bomb threat against a building used in interstate commerce. In addition to the prison sentence, Moultrie was sentenced to serve a three year term of supervised release following completion of his prison term.

More specifically, at his guilty plea on August 28, 2007, Moultrie admitted that on August 29, 2006, Moultrie telephoned the Short Line/Chenengo Valley Bus Lines terminal located at 105 Chenango Street, Binghamton, New York and threatened that a bomb would blow up the terminal building at 8:00 p.m that evening. Moultrie further admitted that when he made the threat he was on duty as a bus driver for Short Line and used his cellular telephone to make the bomb threat. Moultrie made the call at approximately 4:00 p.m. while in Albany to pick up passengers and travel back to the Binghamton Short Line terminal.

In addition to the Binghamton bomb threat, at the time of his plea Moultrie also admitted making similar threatening calls on September 12, 2006, to a Short Line/Coach USA terminal located in Mahwah, New Jersey. Moultrie was on duty and en route to the Mahwah, New Jersey Short Line/Coach Line terminal when Moultrie used his cellular telephone at approximately six o’clock to make two threatening calls minutes apart to the terminal. Moultrie stated during the calls that there were multiple bombs on multiple buses which would be detonated that evening and further stated that he was with Al Qaeda.

In response to the bomb threats in Binghamton and Mahwah, the Shortline Bus Line company enacted emergencyplans, contacted law enforcement agencies, evacuated the terminal buildings and rerouted more than 100 buses. Significant numbers of law enforcement personnel responded to the threats and conducted emergency search and response procedures. There were no bombs located at the Binghamton or Mahwah locations.

Moultrie was charged under Title 18, United States Code, Section 1038, which was one of several new criminal statutes enacted in 2004 under the National Intelligence Reform Act.

The joint local, state and federal investigation was successfully conducted by the New York State Police-Troop C, the Village of Johnson City Police Department, the City of Mahwah Police Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation Joint Terrorism Task Force-Newark Field Division and the Federal Bureau of Investigation Joint Terrorism Task Force-Albany Field Division.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Thomas P. Walsh. Further inquiries may be directed to the United States Attorney’s Office, Binghamton branch office, at (607) 773-2887.