A Philadelphia man has pleaded guilty after he falsely told police that one of his fantasy football rivals was plotting a mass shooting.
Matthew Gabriel, 25, pleaded guilty to two counts of interstate and foreign communication of a threat to injure, U.S. Attorney Jacqueline Romero announced Wednesday.
In 2023, Gabriel reportedly got into an "online disagreement with a member of his fantasy football chat group," according to the plea agreement. Around the same time, Gabriel had learned that the same person had been planning to study abroad in Norway in August 2023.
The 25-year-old submitted an anonymous tip online Aug. 3, 2023 to the Norwegian Police Security Service, "claiming that a member of his fantasy football chat group was going to carry out a mass shooting in Norway," court documents stated.
American and Norwegian law enforcement investigated the claims over the course of five days, spending hundreds of hours on the case, as reported by FOX 29.
Gabriel reportedly admitted to submitting the tip and that it was false when he was later interviewed by the FBI.
Officials said that Gabriel also submitted another false tip on March 22, 2024 to the University of Iowa, claiming that another member of his fantasy football groupchat was planning to "blow up the school," according to court documents.
Romero said that Gabriel knew that the individual was not actually planning on harming the school, and that the comment had been poking fun at Gabriel's previous threat.
Gabriel is facing a maximum possible sentence of five years in prison, three years supervised release, a $250,000 fine and a $100 special assessment fee.
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