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A Pasadena woman was sentenced to five years and four months in prison Wednesday, Feb. 4, after she pleaded guilty to stalking and impersonating a married couple and then threatening to bomb the U.S. Consulate in Vietnam, according to federal prosecutors.
U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett also ordered Natalie Nguyen, 40, to pay $5,372 in restitution after she pleaded guilty in April to one count of threat by interstate commerce to kill another person and to damage and destroy buildings by fire and explosives.
“(Nguyen’s) methods were technical and calculated,” prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum. “She stole her victims’ identities, cut off their electricity and interfered with their health insurance. She researched specific Vietnamese Consulate employees, finding the names of their spouses, parents and children, which she used to terrify the employees.”
From April 2023 to February 2024, the U.S. attorney’s office said Nguyen sent emails threatening to kill a man — identified in court documents as T.H. — and his wife and included screenshots of texts discussing hiring a hit man for $15,000 to kill T.H.’s wife.
Nguyen also stalked five employees at the U.S. Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, sometimes impersonating T.H.’s wife and threatening the consulate, federal prosecutors said.
In August 2023, Nguyen, while impersonating T.H.’s wife, sent an email threatening to bomb the U.S. Consulate. A few months later, she emailed three employees at the U.S. consulate pretending to be T.H., saying “i wil (sic) kill every (expletive) one of you who has been delaying issuing my wife visa,” according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
Impersonating T.H.’s wife again in January 2024, Nguyen messaged U.S. officials through an online portal, saying “Device will be detonated at America consular in Saigon and in San Francisco. All of you will be exploded for causing my separation with my husband for this last year. Everything will be exploded around new year or after.”
The next month, she sent a message as T.H. through a U.S. Embassy online portal and sent a follow-up email pretending to be T.H. a few minutes later. In both messages, she threatened to detonate a grenade at the U.S. consulate in Vietnam on Lunar New Year, according to federal prosecutors.
In a presentencing memo, Nguyen’s attorney argued that she has dealt with mental health issues and experienced a “psychotic break” in 2023.
Originally published at Andrea Klick