An ex-trader pleaded guilty to threatening to kill more than 40 current and former regulatory officials, and now faces up to 10 years in prison.  Vincent McCrudden, 50, admitted on Monday to using e-mails and Internet posts to threaten various officials - including SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro and CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler. 

"This defendant crossed the line when he directly threatened to kill public officials who were working to keep our financial markets fair and open, and invited others to join him. He thought he could hide in the shadows of the Internet and disseminate his threats and instructions. He was wrong."  -- Loretta Lynch, U.S. Attorney, Eastern District of New York. 

McCrudden sent 1 email to the VP and COO at the National Futures Association (NFA), with the subject line “You’re a Dead Man."  On a website he operated, McCrudden implored others to join the cause, telling them to go “buy a gun.”  The website also included an “execution list” with more than 40 current and former officials at the SEC, the CFTC, NFA, and FINRA.

Prior FINRA Regulatory Action.   McCrudden was fined and sanctioned for actions taken while working for Hedge Fund Capital Partners, LLC.  In a case initiated June 2008, FINRA fined McCrudden $10K and suspended him for 30 days for making ... "numerous threatening, abusive, harassing, coercive, intimidating and/or vulgar communications to his member firm employees in connection with a dispute over expenses and commissions and the firm's Form U5 filing."

[DealBook, 7/18/11;   FINRA CRD Records as of 7/18/11]