Salem man arrested for allegedly tweeting threats to kill Robinhood employees
A Salem man is accused of making threats over social media to harm and kill employees of the financial investment app Robinhood and their families as payback for his financial losses.
Christopher David Michalski, who runs a business in Salem selling gourmet mushrooms, was arrested May 5, as originally reported by The Daily Beast and The Oregonian.
According to a federal affidavit unsealed Thursday, the FBI began investigating after receiving a complaint in mid-April from the director of Threat Assessment and Risk Intelligence at Robinhood Markets, Inc., headquartered in California.
The complaint detailed Twitter posts that threatened physical violence and murder directed at employees of Robinhood in retribution for the financial losses Twitter user "goldshroomsand1" claims to have suffered.
Robinhood employees were concerned about the continued and escalating nature of the threats and the potential for a violent, on-site altercation, according to court documents.
The affidavit included screenshots and tweets beginning in May of last year and continuing through late March that show repeated threats toward members of the company, with the user saying they "dream of a world where your bodies are strung from light posts. I really want nothing more than to make you beg for your lives for what you did to me."
The first documented tweet in the affidavit was from May of last year, when goldshroomsand1 posted: “If anyone is interested, Robinhood’s headquarters is in Menlo Park, CA. 85 Willow Road. They’re near the Timothy Hopkins Park and the Willow Park Campus. I worry people will go there in person to politely air out their grievances.” The post also contained a picture and map of the headquarters' location, investigators said.
In February, goldshroomsand1 directed a tweet at Robinhood: “Just wondering how many dead financial terrorists I need to collect to redeem the thousands of dollars you stole from me.”
Some tweets included photos and videos of firearms, some identified to be taken at Tritac Shooting Range in Salem. One tweet includes a link to body camera footage from a mass shooting in San Jose, along with the user's caption, "Police can't save you."
And in March, goldshroomsand1 posted a message directed at the CEO of Robinhood: “I’m gonna make you beg me to stop skinning your children in front of you.”
Millions of young people have been investing in recent years using Robinhood, a trading app founded in 2013 that advertised no trading fees or account minimums, The Oregonian reported. The company reported billions in losses last year and now faces lawsuits and investigations following its abrupt restricted trading in some "meme stocks" − shares of a company that have gained a cult-like following online and through social media − a day after Gamestop reached its peak.
FBI agents identified Michalski, in his late 30s, as the @goldshroomsand1 account user largely via an IP address. The FBI confirmed via DMV records that Michalski resides in Salem and currently has a vehicle registered to him jointly with a woman who was also listed as his spouse in Tritac’s records.
Michalski was the registered owner in 2019 of Northwest Mycological, an “edible and gourmet mushroom” retailer that listed the business address as his home address in Salem, according to state records. The company failed to renew its business registration in December 2021.
Michalski’s business is not the same as Northwest Mycological Consultants, a mushroom grower in Corvallis.
If convicted, The Daily Beast reported, Michalski faces up to five years in federal prison for the crime of Interstate Communication of Threats. The @goldshroomsand1 account no longer exists on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Salem man arrested for suspected threats to kill Robinhood employees
