'I feel like Bin Laden': FBI arrests man in alleged New York Stock Exchange bomb plot

A Florida man who federal law enforcement allege planned to detonate a bomb this week at the New York Stock Exchange was arrested Wednesday after an undercover FBI agent recorded him saying, "I feel like Bin Laden."

American Harun Abdul-Malik Yener, 30, was charged with attempting to use an explosive device to damage or destroy a building used in interstate commerce, according to charging documents filed in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Florida.

Yener, of Coral Springs, a city about 20 miles northwest of Fort Lauderdale, planned to set off a bomb outside the stock exchange on Wall Street in Manhattan, according to the 25-page criminal complaint filed by an FBI agent.

"It’ll be like a small nuke went off," court records show Yener told undercover FBI agents. “Anything outside” the building “will be wiped out... anything inside there would be killed.”

Although a motive was not specifically clear, an FBI agent wrote in the affidavit that Yener wanted to “reboot and/or reset” the United States government.

Online records show a judge assigned a public defender to represent Yener.

USA TODAY has reached out to the assigned federal public defender in South Florida.

In addition to the comment regarding the late Osama bin Laden ? an Islamic militant, founder of al Qaeda, and orchestrator of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S ? the court documents reveal, Yener also reportedly expressed general anti-government sentiment and allegedly tried to join right-wing militias.

"This country is due for a revolution," the charging document reads.

Fact check: Two decades later, false claims still swirl about 9/11.

An American, a storage unit and 'bombmaking-schematics'

Described as homeless, court papers show Yener was born in the United States.

In February 2024, the charging documents read, the FBI began investigating Yener, after agents received a tip he was storing "bombmaking schematics" in an unlocked storage unit in Coral Springs.

After obtaining a search warrant, FBI special agents found bombmaking sketches, watches with timers, electronic circuit boards, and other electronics in the storage unit. Agents also allegedly discovered his repeated Google internet searches for aspects of bombmaking as far back as 2017, the FBI affidavit continues.

FBI affidavit: 'It will wake people up'

After meeting an FBI undercover employee, whom Yener reportedly believed to be part of a militia, court documents read, the defendant identified the NYSE as the location for deploying and detonating the improvised explosive device and his target date for carrying out the bombing was the week of Nov. 18, 2024.

During the meeting, Yener discussed different methods of building a remotely detonated device, the affidavit continues.

“With a remote, there are multiple ways I can make a remote to trigger a detonator. I’ve used a doorbell. I’d like to use a two-way radio, because then you can detonate it from two miles away," Yener told the employee, according to the affidavit.”

Yener, the affidavit continues, said he wanted to use a two-way radio to detonate his improvised explosive device, "because it would be harder for law enforcement to intercept or trace the two-way radio signal."

"The Stock Exchange, we want to hit that, because it will wake people up," he said, according to the affidavit. "I want it to be powerful enough to, of course, blow the [profanity] doors offand blow anything up in there, like, big enough… to blow up anything existing in there will bekilled."

Both before and after recording some of his statements, Yener continued to discuss a potential second wave of attacks following the attempted NYSE bombing, the agent wrote in the complaint.

Yener is being detained; due back in court in December

Online records show Yener was being held while he awaits trial.

He appeared in federal court Wednesday for his initial appearance. He is due back in court for his next hearing Dec. 4.

Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on X @nataliealund.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Harun Abdul-Malik Yener arrested, charged in alleged plot to bomb NYSE