A Philadelphia man who had a disagreement in a fantasy football group chat admitted that he had falsely accused another league player of planning a mass shooting in Norway and making a bomb threat against the University of Iowa, the federal authorities said.
The man, Matthew Gabriel, 25, a house painter, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to two counts of interstate and foreign communication of a threat to injure in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Gabriel told the Norwegian Police Security Service in an anonymous online tip he submitted on Aug. 3, 2023, that another member of the group chat had “a shooting planned with multiple people on his side involved,” according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. He had been in a dispute with the group member, who was not identified by the federal authorities but was described as studying abroad in Norway.
He added in the bogus tip that “they plan to take as many as they can at a concert and then head to a department store,” according to prosecutors. “I don’t know any more people than that, I just can’t have random people’s dying on my conscience.”
Mr. Gabriel went further and added that “he should have weapons with him,” urging the authorities to “please be careful.”
After law enforcement officials in Norway and the United States spent hundreds of hours of work “investigating the threatened mass shooting,” Mr. Gabriel admitted to submitting the false tip in an interview with the F.B.I., the statement said.
Then, on March 22, Mr. Gabriel emailed a screenshot of his fantasy football group chat to the University of Iowa, including an exchange in which a member of the chat accused another of planning to “blow up the school,” prosecutors said.
The transcript of that conversation included with the indictment showed members of the group chat reacting to the tip with laughing and heart emojis.
“While already being prosecuted for one hoax threat spurred by, of all things, his fantasy football league, Matthew Gabriel inexplicably decided to send another,” Jacqueline C. Romero, a U.S. attorney, said in her office’s statement. “Hoax threats aren’t a joke or protected speech, they’re a crime.”
Mr. Gabriel could face a maximum sentence of five years in prison, but his lawyer, Lonny Fish, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday that prosecutors had agreed to recommend a sentence of 15 months of home confinement, to be followed by three years of probation. His sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 7, 2025, according to court records.
“He is very fortunate to not get prison,” Mr. Fish, who acknowledged that the judge did not have to follow the sentencing recommendation, said. “The government cut him a real big break.”
The U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment in response to an email seeking verification of the sentencing recommendation. The University of Iowa did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Mr. Fish declined to provide details about the nature of the disagreement between Mr. Gabriel and the group member he falsely accused of planning the attacks in 2023 and 2024. Mr. Fish said the focus of those false accusations was the same person.
Fantasy football, a popular pastime in which people participate in online boards and compete for ranking based on the performance of players in the N.F.L. each week, is known to often include punishments as penalties for poor performance.
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