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Join Telegram ChannelA fantasy football competition in Philadelphia has turned violent, with federal and foreign authorities launching an investigation after a disgruntled player falsely accused another participant of planning to commit violent attacks.
Justice Department prosecutors announced Wednesday that Matthew Gabriel, 25, pleaded guilty to two counts of communicating interstate and foreign threats.
Authorities said a disagreement between Gabriel and another member of an online fantasy football chat group led him to tell police that the member, who he knew was going to study abroad in Europe in August 2023, was planning a bombing and mass shooting in Norway.
Gabriel wrote that another fantasy football player “was heading to Oslo and planning a shootout involving multiple people on his side. They plan to take as many as they can at a concert and then head to a department store,” according to prosecutors.
“I cannot let people die randomly on my conscience,” he wrote to authorities.
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A fantasy football competition in Philadelphia turned violent and federal authorities launched an investigation after a player falsely accused another participant of planning to commit violent attacks. (Tim Heitman / Imagn Images)
Prosecutors said they took the information seriously and that U.S. and Norwegian investigators spent “hundreds of hours responding to and investigating this mass shooting threat over a five-day period.”
Gabriel's ruse didn't last: the FBI questioned him and the 25-year-old admitted that the information was a lie.
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Further investigation into this international ruse revealed that Gabriel had sent an email to the University of Iowa with a similar threat earlier in the year.
In the second threat, Gabriel alleged that the same fantasy football player was threatening to “blow up the school,” which Gabriel knew was false, prosecutors said.
U.S. Attorney Jacqueline Romero has warned fantasy football players not to participate in similar “extremely disturbing” hoaxes. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magan/File)
Gabriel was released Tuesday on $25,000 bail and is scheduled to be sentenced in January. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.
U.S. Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero warned other fantasy football players not to participate in similar “extremely disturbing” hoaxes.
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“While already facing prosecution for a false threat motivated by his football league, Matthew Gabriel inexplicably decided to send another one,” Romero said. “His actions were extremely disruptive and tied up significant law enforcement resources on two continents, diverting them from real incidents and investigations. False threats are not a joke or protected speech, they are a crime.”
“My advice to keyboard warriors who would like to avoid federal prosecution: Always think about the potential consequences before hitting “publish” or “send.”