Man charged in plot to kill wife with fish toxin

June 16, 2009 08:43 pm

— CHICAGO (AP) — A man accused of posing as a doctor to buy vials of deadly puffer fish toxin has been charged with planning to use it to kill his wife and collect $20 million in life insurance.
Thirty-five-year-old Edward Bachner IV was also charged in a fresh indictment Tuesday with lying to the Internal Revenue Service in an effort to collect $538,734 in income tax refunds that he was not due.
The bizarre case surfaced last July when Bachner was arrested after federal agents caught him taking delivery of a shipment of the deadly toxin, which can be fatal when fish containing the substance are eaten.