United States Attorney’s Office
Eastern District of Virginia
Chuck Rosenberg - United States Attorney

ALEXANDRIA     NEWPORT NEWS      NORFOLK      RICHMOND

March 12, 2007

Further Information Contact:
Deanna Warren
Phone: (757) 441-6331

Scarsdale Man Sentenced For Making False Report to FBI

(Norfolk, Virginia) – Philip Andrew Bent, age 27, of Scarsdale, New York, was sentenced today to a three year term of probation and fined $1,000 for making a false statement to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Norfolk about a plot to sabotage military ships. Chuck Rosenberg, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; and Cassandra M. Chandler, Special Agent in Charge, Norfolk Field Office, FBI, also announced that Bent was ordered to continue to receive mental health treatment and counseling as part of his sentence. Bent pled guilty to the charge last November.

According to court documents, on March 27, 2006, Bent made an anonymous phone call to the FBI in Norfolk and falsely reported that Yhoshua Ben Yisrael, formerly Joshua Celestin, was the leader of a black supremacist group in Norfolk known as the Black Israelites. Bent stated that Ben Yisrael and his group had spoken about a plot to sabotage military ships in the Norfolk area in May 2006. Before making the false report to the FBI, Bent had made at least two similar anonymous phone calls to the Norfolk Police Department in 2005 in which he falsely reported nearly identical threats. Ben Yisrael is not a member of the Black Israelites and had not spoken of any plot to sabotage military ships. An investigation by the FBI and the Norfolk Police Department determined that the anonymous reports had been made by Bent. Bent and Ben Yisrael had previously been roommates in Norfolk while attending college, and had quarreled over various matters before Bent left school and returned to his family home in Scarsdale.

The case was investigated by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. Assistant United States Attorney Alan M. Salsbury prosecuted the case for the United States.