A Minnesota man was arrested after allegedly showing up Wednesday night at a New York federal jail while claiming to be an FBI agent and saying he had a court order from a judge to release Luigi Mangione, who is accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, according to a new criminal complaint Thursday.
The man, 36-year-old Mark Anderson of Mankato, when asked by Bureau of Prisons personnel at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn for his credentials, produced a Minnesota driver's license, prosecutors said. Mangione is being held at that jail without bail.
Anderson also allegedly said he had weapons in a bag he was carrying. Inside the bag was a barbecue fork and a circular steel blade, which resembled a pizza cutter, according to the criminal complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Brooklyn.
"Anderson also displayed and threw at the BOP officers numerous documents," an FBI agent who signed the complaint wrote.
"I have reviewed those papers and they appear to be related to filing of claims against the United States Department of Justice," the agent wrote.
Anderson is being charged with impersonating an FBI agent and is scheduled to be presented on Thursday afternoon in Brooklyn federal court, where he is charged in a complaint.
The complaint does not identify by name the inmate that Anderson allegedly hoped to free. But a person in law enforcement confirmed that it was Mangione.
Anderson had traveled to New York City for a job opportunity that did not work out and had been working in a pizzeria, according to that person.
His arrest came hours after state prosecutors in Manhattan Supreme Court urged a judge there to set Mangione's murder trial for July.
That is two months before jury selection is set to begin in the Manhattan federal court case where the University of Pennsylvania graduate is also charged with multiple crimes related to killing Thompson, a Minnesota resident whose company is the largest private health insurer in the United States.
Prosecutors alleged that Mangione stalked and then fatally shot Thompson on the morning of Dec. 4, 2024, as the CEO was walking into a midtown Manhattan hotel for an investors' event by UnitedHealth Group, the parent of UnitedHealthcare.
Mangione was arrested at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania, five days after the slaying.
He has pleaded not guilty in both cases.
Federal prosecutors are seeking to impose the death penalty on Mangione if he is convicted in their case. The judge in that case could rule this week on whether Mangione will face a possible death sentence.
