Ray Allen Flener Pleads Guilty to Conveying False Allegations of a Terrorist Plot to Disrupt Election Day

The United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, Stephen R. Wigginton, announced that Ray Allen Flener, 25, of Sesser, Illinois, pled guilty to federal charges that he made a false statement to a federal officer and that he conveyed a false threat. Sentencing is set for July 31, 2014.

At the change of plea hearing, Flener admitted that on November 2, 2012, as a detainee at the Franklin County Jail in Benton, he told a special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that he had knowledge of a plan by a group called “the New World Order” to disrupt Election Day on November 6, 2012, by using weapons and explosives. Specifically, Flener told and showed the FBI agent the area in which the weapons and explosives allegedly had been stored in August 2012. Flener’s representations were false because, as Flener knew, he had no such knowledge of weapons and explosives having been stored at that location.

Flener also admitted that on November 1, 2012, he did intentionally convey false and misleading information, under circumstances where such information may reasonably have been believed. Specifically, Flener told law enforcement officers from the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI that he had personal knowledge of a plan by a group called the New World Order to disrupt Election Day, November 6, 2012, by using weapons and explosives.

The first charge of making a false statement carries a maximum penalty of eight years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and up to three years of supervised release. The second charge of conveying a false threat carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and up to three years of supervised release.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Illinois State Police; the Illinois Department of Corrections; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; the sheriff’s offices of Franklin County, Williamson County, Saline County, and Jackson County; and the police departments of Marion, West Frankfort, and Johnston City. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Liam Coonan.