Texas Auto Exec Charged, Charged With Hiring Soldiers As Contract Killers To Kill Mistress And Boyfriend – CBS Dallas / Fort Worth

AUSTIN (CBSDFW.COM/CNN) – Justice Department officials said a Texan businessman and three others, including members of the IDF and US Marines, accused of conspiring in a murder plot on behalf of others were arrested.

Erik Charles Maund began emailing a woman in February 2020 with whom he had a previous relationship and planned to see her when he planned to travel to Nashville, prosecutors said. After his visit, Maund, who is married, received a series of texts from a man in a relationship with the same woman.

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The couple have been identified by the Metro Nashville Police Department as Holly Williams, 33, and William Lanway, 36.

During the exchange of text messages, Lanway threatened to expose Maund’s relationship with Williams if he did not receive “some kind of monetary payment” to remain silent, according to an indictment released on December 13. .

Maund has reportedly enlisted Gilad Peled, Byron Brockway and Adam Carey to help them deal with extortion threats. Peled introduced himself as a former member of the Israel Defense Forces, Brockway is a former active-duty US Navy and Carey previously served in the Marine Corps Special Operations Group, according to the Justice Department.

They are charged in a three-count indictment of conspiracy to commit kidnapping, kidnapping resulting in death, and carrying, brandishing and unloading a firearm while and in connection with a violent crime. A lawyer has not been listed for each of the for-hire murder suspects, according to online records. If they are found guilty, they risk life imprisonment.

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The plot against Lanway and Williams began around March 5, 2020, when Maund withdrew $ 15,000 from his bank account and an “intelligence report” was prepared and provided to Peled “by a relative of Brockway who worked for a company. Internet security, ”according to the indictment.

Six days later, Maund wired $ 150,000 in cash to an account controlled by Peled as Brockway and Carey, armed with guns, clashed with the couple in an apartment complex, according to the indictment. Lanway, the alleged extortioner, was shot and Williams was reportedly kidnapped by Brockway and Carey. They drove a rental car with Lanway’s corpse to a construction site and then gunned down Williams, according to the indictment.

Sometime after the murders, Maund transferred nearly $ 750,000 to Peled, who paid the others for the couple’s kidnapping and murder, prosecutors said.

Maund was arrested in Austin during a traffic stop. The other men were arrested by FBI agents and Metro Nashville police in various locations across the country. All will appear for the first time before U.S. magistrates in the districts where they were arrested and will be returned to Tennessee at a later date for new proceedings, according to the Department of Justice.

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