Federal and foreign authorities have launched investigations after a fantasy football tournament in Philadelphia got out of hand and a disgruntled player falsely accused other participants of plotting a violent attack.
Department of Justice prosecutors announced Wednesday that 25-year-old Matthew Gabriel pleaded guilty to two counts of interstate and international threatening communications.
Authorities said a disagreement between Gabriel and another member of an online fantasy football chat group led to the member contacting police to say that the member, who he knew was planning to study abroad in Europe in August 2023, was planning to carry out a bombing and shooting in Norway.
According to prosecutors, Gabriel wrote that his fantasy football friends were “heading toward Oslo and planning a shooting with several of our allies. They planned to shoot as many people as they could at a concert and then head to a department store.”
“I cannot in good conscience allow people to die indiscriminately,” he wrote to authorities.
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Federal authorities have launched an investigation after a fantasy football tournament in Philadelphia got out of hand when one player falsely accused other participants of plotting a violent attack. (Tim Heitman/Imag Images)
Prosecutors said they took the tip seriously and that U.S. and Norwegian investigators “spent hundreds of hours over a five-day period responding to and investigating the mass shooting threats.”
Gabriel's ruse didn't last long, and the FBI questioned him, and the 25-year-old admitted that the “report” was a lie.
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Further investigation into the international scheme revealed that Gabriel had sent a similar threatening email to the University of Iowa earlier this year.
In the second threat, Gabriel claimed the same fantasy football player had threatened to “blow up the school,” but Gabriel knew that wasn't true, prosecutors said.
US Attorney Jacqueline Romero has warned fantasy football players not to take part in similar “highly destructive” pranks. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magan/File)
Gabriel was released on $25,000 bail on Tuesday and is scheduled to be sentenced in January. If convicted, he faces up to five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.
U.S. Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero warned other fantasy football players not to take part in similar “highly destructive” pranks.
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“Matthew Gabriel had already been charged with sending one threatening email sparked by a fantasy football league, and now inexplicably decided to send another,” Romero said. “His actions have been extremely disruptive and have drained significant law enforcement resources on two continents, diverting those resources from actual cases and investigations. Threatening emails are not a joke or protected speech — they are a crime.”
“My advice to keyboard warriors hoping to avoid federal charges is to always consider the possible consequences before hitting 'post' or 'send.'”
