Teen indicted for making bomb threats

The following information was provided by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Hammond, Indiana:

Hammond, IN—The United States Attorney's Office announced that a three count indictment was returned against Ashton Lundeby for his role in internet bomb and related threats directed to Purdue University, Indiana University/Purdue University at Fort Wayne, Indiana, and numerous other educational institutions throughout the country.

Lundeby, age 16, of Oxford, North Carolina, was arrested by the FBI at his home in Oxford on March 6, 2009. A federal search warrant was also executed at that time. Lundeby was arrested pursuant to a juvenile criminal complaint filed in the Northern District of Indiana. Lundeby was ordered detained and remains in federal custody. Under federal law, juvenile proceedings are sealed.

The United States Attorney’s Office filed a motion seeking to proceed against Lundeby as if he were an adult. The United States District Court in South Bend granted that motion and this indictment followed. An indictment is merely a charging document and all persons are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.

The indictment alleges an extensive conspiracy involving Lundeby and unnamed other individuals to transmit bomb threats through the internet. Lundeby, often using the pseudonym “Tyrone”, and his co-conspirators utilized voice over internet protocol (VoIP) software to set-up large scale conference calls across the internet. In addition, online computer gaming accounts were utilized so that participants could listen and observe the police response in real-time. Lundeby and his associates charged fees to listen and observe. Lundeby and his associates used other software to disguise their true identities and the origin of the calls.

Lundeby and other co-conspirators would often target institutions that utilized web based video surveillance cameras. They would log into those cameras, call in a bomb threat, and watch the police response in real-time. This illegal conduct is known as “swatting”, making false reports of an emergency to a police department for the purpose of causing a law enforcement response to the non-existent emergency. Lundeby conducted this activity from his personal computer at his home in Oxford, North Carolina.

The indictment alleges that on January 31, 2009, Lundeby and others directed calls to authorities stating that a bomb had been placed on the campus of Indiana University – Purdue University in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

On February 15, 2009, Lundeby and others directed multiple calls to Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, stating that bombs had been placed on the campus. A follow-up call to Purdue University was made by a co-conspirator claiming to have seen someone place devices onto computers located in the mechanical engineering building.

On March 3, 2009, members of the conspiracy again targeted Purdue University. During this call they identified a person in the computer science building as being armed with a firearm.

In addition to the threats in the Northern District of Indiana, the indictment alleges that Lundeby and co-conspirators:

- directed bomb threats on February 15, 2009, to the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC

- directed bomb threats on February 21, 2009, to Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL

- directed bomb threats on February 24, 2009, to Clemson University, Clemson, SC

- directed bomb threats on February 24-25, 2009, to Boston College, Boston, MA

- directed bomb threats to FBI offices located in Pueblo, CO, and Monroe, LA

The indictment also alleges that as part of the conspiracy conspirators offered, for a nominal fee, to make bomb threat calls - often to high schools – to cause closures. The indictment alleges that bomb threats were made on or about March 4, 2009, as follows:

- West Hempfield Middle School, Irwin, PA

- North Farmington H.S., Farmington Hills, MI

- Mill Valley H.S., Shawnee, KS

- Hamden H.S., Hamden, CT

- Glynn Academy H.S., Brunswick, GA

Specifically, Lundeby is charged in Count 1 of the indictment with conspiring, from mid-2008 through March 6, 2009, to make bomb threats and conveying false information through interstate commerce. Lundeby is charged in Count 2 with a substantive violation for the January 31, 2009, threat to IU/PU at Fort Wayne and in Count 3 for the February 15, 2009, threat to Purdue University.

This indictment was the result of an extensive investigation by the FBI, the FBI Cybercrime Squad based in Indianapolis, the Tippecanoe County Prosecutor’s Office and the Purdue University Police Department.

United States Attorney David Capp praised the cooperative investigative effort here stating:

To properly investigate a crime of this scope and magnitude requires sophisticated technical expertise as well as old fashioned police work. I am grateful for the substantial assistance received from the Tippecanoe County Prosecutor Patrick Harrington and his staff and from Chief John Cox and the Purdue University Police Department.

Capp