Providing False Information and Perpetrating a Hoax-Professor Indicted

An Idaho State University history professor was arrested by the FBI’S Joint Terrorism Task Force on December 26 for allegedly providing false information and perpetuating a hoax.^[1]

Thomas Francis Hale is accused of making false statements under oath and hiding assets during bankruptcy proceedings and then making the threatening hoax.^[2] A federal indictment accuses Hale of lying about the value of his home. He told the bankruptcy trustee it was valued at $190,000 but federal prosecutors allege he took steps to hide its true value of $395,000.^[3]

Federal agents said Hale sent a threatening fax to the bankruptcy trustee “indicating something was coming by mail” apparently to “register some type of objection to his bankruptcy proceedings.”^[4] The bankruptcy trustee, a federal court employee, called the Salt Lake City police department when she received the envelope.^[5] The indictment claims Hale said it contained hantavirus, a potentially deadly virus spread by rodent droppings.^[6] Tests found no evidence of the virus.

18 U.S.C. §1038, the “hoax statute” was introduced after September 11 and the subsequent anthrax scares.^[7] Recently, an amendment named the Terrorism Prevention Act of 2006 was introduced on September 6, 2006 expanding the statute to include hoaxes related to the taking of hostages in order to coerce the federal government (18 U.S.C. §1203), hoaxes related to blowing up an energy facility (18 U.S.C. §1366(a)), hoaxes related to terrorist attacks on military bases aimed at undermining national defense (18 U.S.C. §2156), and hoaxes related to attacks on railways and mass-transportation facilities, such as the recent London bombings (18 U.S.C. §1992-1993).^[8] Further amendments to this section would also increase the penalties for hoaxes about the death, injury, or capture of a U.S. soldier during wartime. ^[9]

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[1] Ben Winslow, Professor Busted in Hantavirus Hoax , Deseret Morning News, December 28, 2006.
[2]Id.
[3]Id.
[4]Id.
[5]Id.
[6]Id.
[7] Id.
[8] S. 3848, 109th Cong. § 2 (2006).
[9]Id.