NEW YORK – Police say he was simply trying to get revenge against his former business associates, by telling authorities they were plotting to bomb the New York subways on the Fourth of July.
They say he was making it all up — but that the false report prompted an intense and costly terrorist investigation that stretched as far as Israel.
The man, a Syrian native named Rimon Alkatri, is now under arrest. The jeweler has been indicted on charges of falsely reporting an incident. It could mean seven years in prison.
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Authorities say 40 investigators conducted 24-hour surveillance as they tried to track down what turned out to be fictitious terrorists.
The phony plot was reported at a time when investigators were looking into another terrorist plan to bomb New York transit facilities. Authorities said they thwarted a plot to flood lower Manhattan by attacking train tunnels under the Hudson River.
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