Broomall man pretended to be a New York Times reporter, made up fake news, authorities say

A Delaware County man who ran a website spewing fake news pretended to be a Good Morning America producer and a New York Times reporter around the same time he doctored a county employee’s email to add racial epithets and make it the subject of an explosive false news report, authorities said.

Nikolaos Tzima Hatziefstathiou, 25, was charged with tampering with public records, forgery, identity theft, theft by deception, receiving stolen property, and related crimes, law enforcement officials said Wednesday. He had claimed to be “president of news," among other titles, for YC News, an online platform he created that he said was based at One Liberty Place.

In reality, investigators said, Hatziefstathiou worked out of a four-bedroom home in Broomall that he shared with family, making up email addresses to spread false narratives. In late April, authorities said, he contacted public officials to report that he had uncovered a “decade-long scheme” involving numerous “Delaware County agencies,” a pitch that went largely ignored.

A few weeks later, authorities said, Hatziefstathiou took an email from a county parole employee and added racist language. He then wrote a news story about it and published it on YC News, where it immediately gained attention from legislators. State Reps. Margo Davidson, Jennifer O’Mara, and Dave Delloso, all Delaware County Democrats, joined Jack Stollsteimer, then the Democratic candidate for Delaware County district attorney, and State Sen. Anthony H. Williams, a Philadelphia Democrat, in decrying the racist missive and calling for an investigation.

“He will use any means to create a false narrative,” Delaware County District Attorney Katayoun M. Copeland said of Hatziefstathiou at a news conference Wednesday. “He will go to any length to do so.”

Copeland, a Republican, went on to rebuke the elected officials who “jumped on Hatziefstathiou’s bandwagon knowing these claims may be false, and were willing to believe the very worst about people without a shred of evidence."

Hatziefstathiou’s lawyer, A. Charles Peruto Jr., said Wednesday that he did not believe prosecutors could prove that his client had committed the crimes.

“Maybe they’ll be able to prove it was done, but not by him," he said, adding that Hatziefstathiou and seven others had access to one laptop. “I don’t think this is going to go anywhere.”

Investigators countered that Hatziefstathiou was the only person to own password-protected electronics that he alone used to create, publish, and discuss racist or otherwise fabricated content.

Copeland said Hatziefstathiou created email addresses under the names of Stephanie Wash, a producer at Good Morning America, and Liam Stack, a correspondent for the Times. He used those emails to contact the Delaware County District Attorney’s Office, investigators said, seeking comment for articles about the unspecified “decade-long scheme” in the county. Wash and Stack, when contacted by investigators, said they had no involvement in the story or the emails.

Last month, amid the mounting investigation, Copeland said, county detectives searched Hatziefstathiou’s home, taking several of his electronics and a printed email from his bedroom that matched the format of the doctored racist email posted on YC News. Authorities also found a police-style Taser, one that had been marked as missing from a local police department’s inventory. The investigation into the Taser is ongoing, Copeland said.

Investigators said Hatziefstathiou was not new to criminal activity or racist behavior. In May 2015, they said, he used the online escort website Backpage to call escorts for his unsuspecting neighbors, then called 911 to report “suspicious vehicles" when the women appeared. Later, authorities said, he called the escorts with threats and racist remarks. The next year, officials said, he began recording himself making prank calls, and once called a hospital patient and yelled anti-Semitic comments.

Peruto said Hatziefstathiou pleaded guilty to harassment for those offenses. He was released from supervised parole in December 2018.

As for the latest allegations, Hatziefstathiou left the Broomall area once authorities had a warrant for his arrest, Copeland said, but she said he was expected to turn himself in to the Delaware County District Attorney’s Office on Thursday.