A 23-year-old sports bettor known as "Parlay Patz" faces federal counts related to transmitting threats of violence directed at professional and collegiate athletes and their friends and families.
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Federal authorities on Wednesday charged a 23-year-old sports bettor known as "Parlay Patz" with transmitting threats of violence directed at professional and collegiate athletes and their friends and families.
According to
the criminal complaint, Benjamin Tucker Patz of New York, New York, used multiple anonymous accounts on social media in 2019 to make threats against athletes, including members of the
New England Patriots, several Major League Baseball teams and multiple college basketball and football players. Some of the threats contained derogatory terms and racial slurs.
Patz is charged with transmitting threats in interstate or foreign commerce. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of up to five years in federal prison. Patz did not immediately respond to phone and email messages from ESPN.
On March 9, 2019, Patz allegedly sent four Instagram direct messages to an unidentified college basketball player for Pepperdine University, stating, "Your throat will be severed open with a dull knife," "Your entire family will be beheaded and burned alive," "I will enter your home as you sleep and kill you" and "Watch your back, you're a dead man walking."
In an affidavit, FBI Special Agent Daniel Nowak said the Instagram account behind the threats to the Pepperdine player was registered with an email address linked to Patz.
The criminal complaint identifies similar threats made on Instagram against a college basketball player for the University of Arizona, players for the Toronto Blue Jays and Tampa Bay Rays, and the girlfriend of an Atlanta Braves player.
The complaint claims that approximately 18 messages were sent from the Instagram account @parlaypatz to college and professional football and basketball players. More than 300 more threatening messages were directed at players from anonymous accounts that authorities believe are linked to Patz.