NEW YORK — A Maine man is accused of participating in a murder-for-hire plot in New York City, planning to wear a latex mask of an elderly person while armed with guns and ammunition, prosecutors said.
According to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, Hyunkook Korsiak, 41, of Augusta, was arrested in Tarrytown, New York, on Wednesday. He was charged with one count of murder-for-hire and one count of possession of a firearm following a felony conviction.
Korsiak was convicted of theft from a licensed firearms dealer in 2017, WABI-TV reported.
The federal complaint, filed Thursday in federal court, alleges that Korsiak expressed interest in a murder-for-hire plot in August 2022. The FBI was alerted as prison officials intercepted communications, and in December 2022, an undercover FBI agent began communicating with Korsiak.
Prosecutors said that Korsiak allegedly was willing to carry out the plot to murder a New York businessman for $50,000. However, the businessman was a fictitious figure created by federal agents.
According to court records, the FBI agent depicted himself as a member of “a transnational criminal organization” engaged in money laundering, drug and weapons trafficking and acts of violence that included murder for hire.
The agent began communicating with Korsiak via the Telegram app on Dec. 2, 2022, and on Jan. 9, 2023, the two agreed to meet in the Battery Park area of lower Manhattan in New York City, according to court records.
According to the FBI, Korsiak met with undercover agents in Boston, New York City and Tarrytown, WNBC-TV reported.
Federal officials said that Korsiak traveled on Wednesday from Maine to Tarrytown, where he allegedly intended to finish preparing for the murder, according to WABI.
Officials said that Korsiak had two AR-15 rifles when he was arrested, WMTW-TV reported. Agents said that Korsiak also had two 9mm pistols, rifle scopes, a bulletproof vest, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, latex gloves and a latex mask that resembled an elderly man, according to the television station.
“The defendant was willing to travel over 300 miles in order to fulfill his depraved desire to be paid for taking another human’s life,” FBI Assistant Director Michael J. Driscoll said in a statement. “The defendant displayed callous disregard for life and planned to conduct his act of violence in the middle of Manhattan.”
If Korsiak is convicted, the murder-for-hire charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, and the firearms possession charge has a maximum jail term of 15 years, prosecutors said.