A virtual reality laboratory worker at Northeastern University in Massachusetts was arrested by the FBI on Tuesday for alleged deception by evacuating part of the campus and prompting a search of other colleges and universities, according to the federal prosecutor’s office. of Boston.
The subject identified as Jason Duhaime had to face a charge of transmitting false and misleading information related to an explosive. He was also charged with making materially false statements to a federal agent, ABC News reported.
“In a recorded call to 57 and in a recorded conversation Later with a federal law enforcement officer, Duhaime reported that he was injured by ‘sharp’ objects ejected from a plastic case he opened inside the Immersive Media Lab on the night of 12 September of 2022”, indicated the complaint.
“A large portion of Northeastern’s Boston campus was evacuated and the Northeastern University Police Department issued numerous alerts throughout the campus. One of which described an explosion on campus,” said Boston federal prosecutor Rachael Rollins.
The FBI claimed that Duhaime, who was manager of new technologies and director of the immersive media at the university, he was the author of a threatening letter addressed to the laboratory, the complaint added.
Investigators determined that there was no evidence that the package, contained in a hard plastic Pelican box, had exploded ever. Nor were any “sharp” objects found, which Duhaime described.
Forensic analysis of one of the computers in a search at Duhaime’s Northeastern office would have disclosed a word-for-word electronic copy of the letter stored in a backup folder.
The metadata associated with the file reflected a date and time of 13 September at 2: 13 pm, approximately four hours after Duhaime called 911, according to prosecutor Rollins.