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NEW YORK — <\/span>The leader of an Eastern European neo-Nazi group has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for trying to recruit others to commit violent attacks against Jews and racial minorities, including one plot that would have involved dressing as Santa Claus to hand out poisoned candy to children.<\/p>\n Michail Chkhikvishvili, a 22-year-old from the country of Georgia who goes by the nickname \u201cCommander Butcher,\u201d was sentenced by a federal judge in Brooklyn on Wednesday. He pleaded guilty in November<\/a> to soliciting hate crimes and distributing information about making bombs and ricin.<\/p>\n \u201cI acknowledge that my actions have brought harm by spreading hatred and violence and I\u2019m truly sorry for that,” Chkhikvishvili wrote in a letter to the judge last month.<\/p>\n His lawyer, Zachary Taylor, asked for a five-year sentence, citing Chkhikvishvili’s mental health struggles since he was a teenager who \u201cfell under the spell of the violent extremist content\u201d on social media, but has since reformed. Taylor also mentioned harsh conditions during Chkhikvishvili’s nearly yearlong confinement in Moldova, where he was arrested in 2024<\/a> on an international warrant, according to his letter to the judge.<\/p>\n Prosecutors described Chkhikvishvili as the leader of the Maniac Murder Cult, an international extremist group that adheres to a neo-Nazi ideology promoting violence intended to trigger a racial and religious war.<\/p>\n They said the group\u2019s violent solicitations \u2014 promoted through Telegram channels and outlined in the \u201cHater\u2019s Handbook\u201d \u2014 appear to have inspired multiple real-life killings, including a school shooting in Nashville, Tennessee<\/a>, last year that left a 16-year-old student dead.<\/p>\n Chkhikvishvili \u201crepeatedly called for the murder of innocent civilians, including children, and schemed to attack and terrorize Jewish communities and racial minorities in the United States,\u201d Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Eisenberg said in a statement. \u201cChkhikvishvili, for example, tried to recruit a supposed associate to dress up as Santa Claus and pass out poisoned candy to minority children.\u201d<\/p>\n Since 2021, prosecutors said Chkhikvishvili distributed the \u201cHater\u2019s Handbook\u201d to members and others.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m very ashamed authoring Haters Handbook, hoping one day it will disappear, I wish I never wrote it,\u201d Chkhikvishvili wrote to the judge.<\/p>\n Prosecutors said Chkhikvishvili traveled to Brooklyn in 2022 and began repeatedly encouraging others to commit hate crimes and other acts of violence. They said in 2023, he solicited an undercover FBI employee to commit bombings and arsons \u201cfor the purpose of harming racial minorities, Jewish individuals and others.\u201d <\/p>\n In 2024, the undercover worker was directed \u201cto target the Jewish community, Jewish schools, and Jewish children in Brooklyn with poison,\u201d prosecutors said in a statement. <\/p>\n \u201cChkhikvishvili sent detailed manuals about creating and mixing lethal poisons and gases, including ricin.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n