The FBI has released a 17-page report detailing how a Swiss body builder offered to kill Kobe Bryant’s rape accuser for $3 million. According to The Denver Post, Swiss bodybuilder Patrick Graber approached Bryant about killing the woman who accused Bryant of raping her in 2003. Graber wanted $3 million to commit the crime, but Bryant’s lawyers immediately contacted the FBI.
Graber lived in a Los Angeles suburb at the time and authorities initiated the probe after Bryant’s bodyguards received a FedEx package with a letter in it describing the plan. The letter was turned over by Bryant’s security team and his attorney to the LA County Sheriff’s Department. The FBI report revealed that Graber’s letter included “inferences that he could make Bryant’s problem with respect to the sexual assault case go away for a fee.”
Graber was caught by FBI agents when they met with him and arranged to make a payment using fake money. Graber, then 31, tried to collect a $1 million payment in the scheme but was instead arrested in September 2003 by FBI agents and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Graber was ultimately sentenced to three years in prison in the case, after pleading no contest to grand theft in 2004 when prosecutors dropped several charges against him, including solicitation to commit murder, the Associated Press and ESPN reported at the time. He was subsequently deported after his release.
Bryant was in Vail, Colorado for a knee surgery appointment in July 2003 when he was accused of raping a white woman in a hotel room. Bryant denied the rape of the woman who also worked at the hotel and insisted the sex was consensual. The case was dismissed after his accuser said she did not want to testify at trial. She however filed a civil suit which was settled out of court.
