Man pleads guilty to Amazon bomb plot to upset ‘the oligarchy’ after Fort Worth arrest
A man pleaded guilty Thursday to planning to blow up an Amazon Web Services data center in Virginia.
Seth Pendley, 28, met with an undercover FBI agent in Fort Worth in April, according to federal prosecutors. The agent gave him C-4 plastic explosives and showed him how to use the devices, which Pendley said he would use to damage computer servers at an Amazon Web Services Data Center in Ashburn, Virginia.
After Pendley put the inert explosives in his Pontiac, FBI agents arrested the Wichita Falls man.
Pendley said he believed the data centers are used by federal government agencies, according to the FBI, and their destruction would broadly disrupt internet service and upset “the oligarchy.”
The criminal complaint quotes Pendley describing his motive.
“The main objective is to [expletive] up the Amazon servers. There’s 24 buildings that all this data runs through in America. Three of them are right next to each other, and those 24 run 70 percent of the Internet. And the government, especially the higher, CIA, FBI, special [expletive], they have like an 8 billion dollar a year contract with Amazon to run through their servers. So we [expletive] those servers, and it’s gonna [tick] all the oligarchy off.”
Pendley said that he believed the government would overreact to the explosions and that people would be awakened to how unjust the government is, according to the criminal complaint.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas charged Pendley with a malicious attempt to destroy a building with an explosive. He entered a plea of guilty for the charge, which could carry a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
Law enforcement authorities learned of Pendley on Jan. 8, when a concerned person notified the FBI of posts on mymilitia.com. The person provided the agency with screenshots of posts that discussed riots at the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, according to the criminal complaint.
Pendley wrote in Facebook messages that he was outside the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6. Later, Pendley said that he brought a rifle with him that he had modified with a hack saw so that it would fit inside a backpack. He left the gun in his car, Pendley said.
