Man Convicted of Posing as a Federal Officer After Making Bomb Threats

(NationalUSNews.com) — A California jury has convicted a man who made multiple bomb threats against places nationwide and impersonated a federal officer following a tense three-day-long trial in Sacramento. The man in question is 38-year-old Anton Andreyevich Iagounov, who perpetrated a string of bomb threats throughout 2021 and 2022. Iagounov first landed on federal authorities’ radar after he made bomb threats against places in Wyoming, Nevada, New York, Texas, and California.

According to prosecutors, Iagounov targeted casinos, hotels, first responder offices like police and fire departments, and state legislator offices. While authorities aren’t entirely sure of how many threats Iagounov called in during his scheme, they believe Iagounov made at least ten different bomb threats during his threat spree.

While police began investigating Iagounov for the bomb threats, they soon uncovered evidence of Iagounov impersonating a federal officer for the bomb threats’ victims. Investigators believe Iagounov would call in bomb threats against targets and then contact them while impersonating a federal officer to see if they considered the bomb threats credible. Iagounov also called the Albany International Airport during one of his threats, claiming that a terrorist would detonate a nuclear device at the airport. Although authorities first learned about Iagounov impersonating federal officers during his bizarre bomb threat scheme, they quickly learned about Iagounov using fictitious federal credentials for other purposes.

The FBI began investigating Iagounov after learning about the bomb threat spree and soon found out about an unrelated scheme involving NASA. Iagounov claimed that he worked for NASA’s Office of Inspector General as one of NASA’s agents in an ongoing effort to obtain classified information relating to NASA and the federal government. Iagounov also attempted to use his fake federal credentials to serve search warrants in Washington, D.C., which Capitol Police personnel quickly discovered were illegitimate.

Iagounov sent multiple fake warrants while posing as an agent for NASA, including warrants for a Florida bankruptcy court and a different Florida federal court. Iagounov’s impersonation acts carry a maximum prison sentence of three years and a fine of approximately $250,000 each. Iagounov’s sentence has yet to be determined, but the convicted impersonator will appear in court on October 17 to face sentencing.

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