Transnational Swatting Ring Leader Pleads Guilty in US Campaign Targeting Former President and Officials

• A swatting ring leader pleaded guilty to over 100 swatting calls and direct threats.
• The individual promised to carry out mass shootings and bombings and encouraged others to follow.
• The charges carry a combined maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, and sentencing is scheduled for October 2025.

Leader of online swatting ring pleaded guilty to accusations of orchestrating a widespread swatting and bomb threat conspiracy targeting high-profile U.S. individuals and institutions, including a former President-elect. 

As the leader of the group, Thomasz Szabo contacted law enforcement to report false threats, which included a December 2020 mass shooting at New York City synagogues and a January 2021 explosives detonation at the U.S. Capitol to kill the President-elect.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the Romanian national, also known by online aliases "Plank," "Jonah," and "Cypher," admitted to leading a years-long campaign that leveraged digital anonymity to perpetrate violent hoaxes.

Szabo was extradited from Romania to the United States in late 2024, after a multi-agency investigation involving the FBI, U.S. Secret Service, and international law enforcement partners. 

He pleaded guilty to conspiracy and to making threats involving explosives, charges that carry a combined maximum penalty of 15 years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for October 2025.

Szabo’s operation began in late 2020 and continued through early 2024, orchestrating false emergency reports targeting more than 75 government officials, multiple religious institutions, media personalities, and private citizens. 

His tactics, primarily swatting calls and bomb threats, specifically targeted members of Congress, cabinet-level officials, senior law enforcement, and the judiciary, as well as places of worship. 

The DOJ stated that Szabo also made direct threats, including promises to carry out mass shootings and bombings, magnifying the urgency and scale of federal response.

Among the targets were:

• at least 25 Members of Congress or their families, 
• at least six senior U.S. Executive Branch officials, 
• at least 13 senior federal law enforcement officials, 
• multiple members of the federal judiciary; 
• at least 27 state government officials or their families, 
• at least four religious institutions, 
• multiple members of the media.

These crimes aimed to provoke armed responses by law enforcement, resulting in significant public safety hazards, resource diversion, and psychological trauma for victims.

The swatting campaign escalated from December 2023 into early 2024, with Szabo’s network of operatives claiming to have executed over 25 swatting attacks in a single day, boasting about the disruption and the massive expenditure of public funds triggered by these false emergencies. 

This case also involves partner Nemanja Radovanovic, 21, of Serbia, as the two individuals were indicted for orchestrating approximately 100 swatting calls.

Secret Service agents questioned Szabo in Romania in January 2024 when he revealed involvement in both swatting and bomb threats since late 2020, while Radovanovic was questioned in Serbia in February 2024.