Eighteen years after a woman accused Kobe Bryant of rape, FBI unsealed a report related to murder-for-hire. A Swiss bodybuilder Patrick Graber sent a letter to Kobe Bryant saying that he would kill the rape accuser for $3 million. The redacted report is now available on the vault website of the FBI. Although the bodybuilder’s name was redacted, he was sentenced to a three-year prison term and was deported.
The report says that Graber sent the LA Lakers star a letter with a plot detailing murder-for-hire scheme. Bryant’s security and legal team immediately contacted the Sheriff’s Department in Los Angeles. A sting operation was conducted, and he was arrested and charged in 2004.
The sting operation included an undercover LA County Sheriff’s Department detective meeting Garber twice. The detective recorded him saying that he had a team who could execute Bryant’s accuser. He also said that they would leave no evidence behind.
Authorities agreed to pay him with prop money that is used in Hollywood films. He was arrested when he reportedly reached for the bag that contained the fake money.
In 2004, ESPN had reported that Patrick Garber, 31 was sentenced to a three-year term in prison in Los Angeles on July 9, 2004, and that he would be deported to Switzerland after he completed his prison term.
In 2003, Kobe Bryant was arrested and charged for rape after a 19-year-old woman accused him of the same at a Colorado hotel. Initially he said that it was consensual. The charges were dropped after his accuser refused to appear in court. There was a civil lawsuit that was settled out of court after he wrote a long apology letter to her but refused to admit guilt.
Laker’s legend Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash in January 2020. His daughter Gianna and seven others were also traveling along with him.
