Nashua, New Hampshire man charged in Harvard bomb threat

A man is accused of calling in bomb threats to Harvard University and demanding a large amount of Bitcoin in return, federal prosecutors said. William Giordani of Nashua, New Hampshire, was arrested Tuesday on charges of conspiracy and accessory to extortion. He has a detention hearing scheduled in federal court in Boston on Friday. It was not immediately known if he had an attorney. The Harvard University Police Department received six calls regarding bombs and demands for payment on April 13, according to a statement from a campus police officer. The caller provided a location and description of a device, which police located and destroyed. Police, who evacuated the area, said they found no other devices. The device had a metal locking safe, a bundle of wire, a quantity of fireworks inside the safe and a small rectangular box with wires attached to it, police said. It also had a yellow Home Depot sticker and another man’s name. A Home Depot store said someone with that name had allegedly placed an order for some of the supplies found in the unit. Police said Giordani was allegedly seen on camera picking up the order at the store, and on surveillance video near where the device was found. Giordani later told police that “all he did” was answer a Craigslist ad and “just put fireworks in a safe and put them at Harvard,” according to the affidavit. He also said he spoke with the person who posted the ad, who said he wanted to call the police to make a bomb threat to get money and would pay him, the affidavit said. Police allege Giordani placed a Craigslist ad posing as the parent of a Harvard student saying they needed someone to deliver supplies to their son. A contact number was the same one Giordani allegedly used later, authorities said. He is also said to have left a receipt with his parents’ names in the bag which the police found.