The FBI recently unsealed a 17-page report on a frightening murder-for-hire scheme that targeted the Colorado woman who accused NBA superstar Kobe Bryant of sexual assault back in 2003.
The report, which is heavily redacted, outlines the case against Patrick Graber, a Swiss bodybuilder who offered to kill Bryant’s accuser for $3 million. Graber was sentenced in 2004 to three years in prison for the scheme.
According to the report, Graber mailed an offer to Bryant via Federal Express that included “inferences that he could make Bryant’s problem with respect to the sexual assault case go away for a fee.” Bryant’s security team as well as his attorney took that letter to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, who then conducted a controlled meeting with the suspect, who offered to “influence the victim” in the trial and, if that didn’t work, to “go all the way to remove the witness,” the report said.
Three Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies would soon travel to Eagle County to interview the woman and warn her about the threat, the report said. Graber would be caught after the FBI set up meetings with him and arranging to make payment with fake money used in Hollywood movie sets.
Bryant was arrested and charged in 2003 after a woman claimed the five-time NBA champion raped her in a Colorado hotel room. Those charges were later dropped after the woman refused to testify in court. The parties reached a settlement in a civil lawsuit.
As you know, Bryant tragically passed away alongside his daughter Gianna and seven others in a helicopter crash in January 2020.
