Harvard Student Charged for Bomb Hoax

After false bomb reports shut down campus buildings

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Updated at 7:50 p.m. EST

A Harvard University student was charged Tuesday for filing unfounded claims that bombs had been placed around the school’s campus, CBS Boston reports.

The U.S. Attorney’s office alleges that Eldo Kim, 20, emailed the Harvard University Police and a school newspaper, the Harvard Crimson, about the non-existent bombs Monday around 8:30 a.m. before he was scheduled to take a final exam. According to the affidavit, Kim sent the following email message:

shrapnel bombs placed in:

science center
sever hall
emerson hall
thayer hall

2/4. guess correctly.

be quick for they will go off soon

Campus buildings were evacuated following the warnings, though authorities found no evidence of bombs. The emails were sent from a service called Guerilla Mail — which creates temporary and anonymous email messages — using an anonymous IP address through a product called TOR. The university found that Kim had accessed the TOR through Harvard’s wireless network.

When FBI agents and the Harvard University police department confronted Kim, he stated that he had authored the bomb email threats in order to avoid a final he was scheduled to take at 9 a.m. at Emerson hall, according to the affidavit.

Kim will appear in federal court on Wednesday. He faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine under the bomb hoax statute.

This story has been updated to provide further details on the e-mail threats.

[CBS Boston]