A 33-year-old Cambridge man is facing federal charges after prosecutors say he waged a monthslong campaign of threatening emails against former business investors, including messages demanding he be let back into a Winchester venture studio residence he’d been evicted from. Patrick McDonald appeared in federal court in Boston on Wednesday on three counts of cyberstalking and three counts of transmitting threats in interstate commerce, all tied to a dispute over his startup, Waev.
According to charging documents cited by WCVB, the three victims had provided McDonald with a venture studio residence in Winchester to help get Waev off the ground. Venture studios typically function as startup incubators, offering early-stage entrepreneurs seed funding, co-working space, and even physical housing alongside financial capital, according to Boston Venture Studio. The arrangement fell apart after investors say McDonald refused to produce business financial status updates or year-end audits, prompting one victim to advise the other two to pull funding over fears Waev might be a scam.
Eviction Followed Alleged $1.3 Million in Damage
The investors withdrew their funding and evicted McDonald from the Winchester residence, according to the charging documents. Prosecutors allege McDonald caused $1.3 million in damages to the property before he left. WCVB’s report notes that McDonald began his campaign of harassing and taunting emails allegedly shortly after that funding withdrawal and eviction.
Federal authorities say the campaign ran from April 2026 through at least June, and the volume was staggering: McDonald allegedly sent 193 emails to one victim over a single seven-day period, and 259 emails to a victim’s attorney over 11 days. A U.S. Attorney’s Office press release noted that McDonald allegedly kept sending threatening communications even after harassment prevention orders were already in place prohibiting him from contacting certain victims, meaning the civil protective measures victims had already sought failed to stop the conduct before federal prosecutors stepped in.
Graphic Threats and a Direct Reference to the Eviction
The charging documents allege McDonald’s messages grew increasingly violent and specific. On April 26, 2026, he allegedly emailed the three victims a graphic depicting a man being shot, along with the message, “Someone is getting shot in the [expletive] face if I am not put back inside that house.” That message directly tied the threats to the alleged motive: regaining access to the residence he’d been evicted from…