Two female former Michigan athletes have reportedly filed a lawsuit against former Wolverines assistant football coach Matt Weiss, alleging that he stole “intimate” photos of them by hacking into their personal accounts.
Last week, Weiss, who was Michigan’s quarterbacks coach and later co-offensive coordinator during the 2021 and 2022 seasons, was indicted by the federal government. The 42-year-old is facing 14 counts of unauthorized access to computers and 10 counts of aggravated identity theft. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison for every computer charge and up to two years behind bars for every identity charge.
Weiss is accused of gaining illegal access into a database of more than 100 college athletes that was managed by a third-party company, Keffer Development Services.
Once inside the accounts, Weiss allegedly downloaded personal information and medical data for more than 150,000 athletes and used that info to infiltrate the social media, email and cloud storage accounts of more than 3,000 athletes.
Weiss is accused of accessing content “that [was] never intended to be shared beyond intimate partners.”
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“The lawsuit alleges that the two women, one who was a gymnast in 2017 and 2018 and one who was a soccer player from 2017 to 2023, were among Weiss’s thousands of victims,” says the Detroit News. “The University of Michigan and its Board of Regents failed to supervise and monitor Weiss, which led to women having their privacy invaded, according to the lawsuit.”
Weiss was fired by Michigan in January 2023 after news broke of an investigation into his alleged improprieties, which are said to have occurred over a span of eight years, starting before Weiss arrived in Ann Arbor.
“I have nothing but respect for the University of Michigan and the people who make it such a great place,” Weiss said in a statement after he was fired.
“I look forward to putting this matter behind me and returning my focus to the game that I love.”
From 2009-20, Weiss worked for the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens in a variety of roles under John Harbaugh, the brother of former Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh, who was Weiss’ boss with the Maize and Blue.
Related: Former Michigan Football Coach Indicted By Federal Government
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