Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation came to Bayonne last week, continuing the investigation into a July letter mailed to about 20 media outlets threatening workers at Goldman Sachs.
Goldman Sachs is Wall’s Streets largest investment banking firm with offices throughout the world, including Jersey City.
Its officials said federal officials did not take the oringial threat as crediable, but in light of the heightened tensions throughout the world are actively investigating the matter.
Federal agents fingerprinted staff at the Bayonne Community News who handled the threatening letter received on July 26.
The FBI said the same person might have authored a second letter sent to the Daily News in August.
FBI spokesman James Margolin said the new letter has been sent to FBI labs in Virginia for analysis.
While the original letter threatened to kill Goldman Sachs employees, the August letter claimed this was not the work of criminals, but rather misguided teens
The original letters read: “Goldman Sachs. Hundreds will die. You cannot stop us.” They were signed: “A.Q.U.S.A.”
The second letter called the first letter a hoax.
Like the first letter, the second letter was written in red letters on lined paper.
FBI officials said the two letters contain “similarities,” and may have been written by the same person. But officials are causious about the claim of a “hoax.”
The August letter to the Daily News, FBI officials said, was four pages with a detailed explanation which claimed the original threat was made by three children, one of whom had a parent with a “financial beef” with Goldman Sachs.
The July letter, however, came at the same time as terrorists were apprehended in Britian after a botched attack in London and Scotland.
In collecting fingerprints from the Community News staff, FBI agents hoped to find other prints on the July letter that would better reveal the idenity of the author.
The August letter, however, claimed that the writing in the letters had been wiped with furniture polish to erase forensic evidence – which FBI officials verified as true.
Federal officials said they take the threat seriously and are continuing the investigation with the belief that the author or authors will be apprehended.
While officials did not say where the second letter originated, the original July letter was postmarked from New York City to newspapers in Newark and Bayonne, N.J.; Fort Wayne, Ind.; Corpus Christi, TX, and Boise, ID. The Star Ledger and the Bayonne Community News were the only New Jersey papers to receive the original letter.
FBI agents out of the Newark office who came to the Bayonne Community News offices last week fingerprinted the two employees who handled the letter including Senior Staff Reporter Al Sullivan, who had brought the letter to the Bayonne police. Although they could not comment on the investigation, they said the fingerprinting was done to distinquish these fingerprints from those that might have been left on the letter when mailed.