By Dan Christensen, FloridaBulldog.org
A Texas company defending itself in a fast-moving federal copyright lawsuit in Orlando has filed court papers declaring that the killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson used a 3D-printed pistol and silencer built from digital printing files provided by a Florida-based “black-market operator.”
That assertion is contained in court papers filed Dec. 27 by Defense Distributed against an entity known as “The Gatalog,” Lake Worth lawyer Matthew Larosiere and other alleged principals of The Gatalog. The papers were filed as a counterclaim in a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by Larosiere against competitor Defense Distributed and its CEO, Cody Wilson, on Sept. 6 and amended on Dec. 11.
“This is no run-of-the-mill Copyright Act dispute, as Plaintiff Matthew Larosiere wants it to seem,” according to the counterclaim. “At issue is a full-fledged criminal racketeering enterprise called ‘The Gatalog,’ run by Larosiere and associated principals, that profits by dealing illegally in the digital firearms information that Defense Distributed handles legally.
“The Gatalog is a black-market operator in the worst sense, achieving its illegal ends with dangerously illegal means of criminal wire fraud, money laundering, extortion and even threatened murder, stealing business from Defense Distributed – the only firm serious enough to do the work legally – and distorting an otherwise thriving and compliance market in digital firearms information,” the counterclaim says.
Larosiere, a gun-rights attorney and gun designer, tells a different story. In an interview on Thursday, he told Florida Bulldog that Cody Wilson and Defense Distributed’s counterclaim was a “harassment lawsuit” intended to divert attention away from his copyright lawsuit. He said the assertion that The Gatalog is a criminal organization “is completely unfounded.”
“It’s just a conspiracy theory that has nothing to do with anything,” said Larosiere. “It doesn’t really exist. It’s just a name that, you know, a bunch of people online who like guns grouped together around.”
3D PRINTED GUNS
Until recently, the traditional arms industry – companies like Smith & Wesson, Ruger, Glock and Sig Sauer – has had a lock on gun manufacturing. But the development of sophisticated 3D printing technology has opened a crack in that commercial enterprise.
Plastic 3D printed guns are controversial because they essentially are invisible to law enforcement. They don’t require background checks to own, contain no serial number and are often impossible to trace, and with the right equipment can be 3D printed at home, sometimes without any metal parts.
Larosiere testified before the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability chaired by Rep. James Comer, R-KY, in March 2023. His subject: “ATF’s Assault on the Second Amendment: When is Enough Enough?” ATF is the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
In his interview with Florida Bulldog, Larosiere said The Gatalog’s website is owned by his friend and co-defendant in the countercomplaint Alex Holladay, and that he has nothing to do with it. “The domain just links to Odysee, and Odysee is like a free speech website [that] just links to the works of people that want to be linked on there. I mean, there’s no way for it to make money.”
Indeed, The Gatalog’s catalogue of blueprints and detailed instructions for using a 3D printer to build an array of digital weaponry, including the FGC-9 which The New York Times recently reported has been used by “insurgents, terrorist, drug dealers and militia members in at least 15 countries,” can be downloaded free of charge.
The same is true on Defense Distributed’s open-source software site, DEFCAD.com, which claims to be “the world’s largest repository for small arms technical data.” Defense Distributed touts what it says its purpose is: “Private defense tech development in the public interest.”
While Larosiere claims to have no involvement with The Gatalog, Florida corporate records show he is president of the nonprofit Gatalog Foundation Inc. He said the foundation, which is also a defendant in the counterclaim, has $5 in its bank account and has done nothing.
The counterclaim says the foundation was used by Larosiere and others to “manage” The Gatalog. But Larosiere said in the the interview, “I founded it with the intention of making a magazine, an informational magazine. I have not done that yet.”
THE GATALOG
The Gatalog itself is accused of sending threatening messages to Cody Wilson, including one his countercomplaint says threatened his life. “On Nov. 7, 2024, a Gatalog member, acting as an agent of the enterprise, sent a message… (that) stated, “Cody, you realize there’s a bounty on your head, right? To clarify I didn’t put it out and I’m not gonna claim it, I just wanted (to) let you know that it’s shit like this that is the reason you have a bounty on you. Have fun sleeping tonight with this information.”
Florida corporate records also show that Larosiere and Holladay are also business partners in MAF Corp, an online retailer that sells firearms components it refers to as “wind chimes.” MAF Corp, also known as Manufacture d’Armes et Carillons de Floride, was also named in the counterclaim, which goes on to say:
“Just days after Defense Distributed filed its original pleading [on Nov. 19], UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s killer used 3-D printed weaponry [a pistol and suppressor] that The Gatalog provided 3D printing files for in violation of the Commerce Department’s EAR regime [the pistol] and the State Department’s ITAR regime [the suppressor].”
The U.S. Commerce Department’s Export Administration Regulations (EAR) controls the export of goods and technologies for national security and foreign policy purposes. The International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), which controls the export of defense and military technologies, are administered by the State Department.
“While at first The Gatalog members’ social media posts foolishly touted The Gatalog’s role in this tragedy, they soon thought better and pivoted to a full-scale coverup. Pertinent internet accounts are being deleted left and right by the very same individuals that Defense Distributed originally accused of spoliation…By bringing the instant claims, Defense Distributed seeks not just to be compensated for all of The Gatalog’s past economic harms, but to put a definitive end to this illegal racketeering enterprise before more terrible crimes occur,” the counterclaim says.
Luigi Mangione, 26, is facing first-degree murder and other state and federal charges for the shooting of UnitedHealthcare executive Brian Thompson. Thompson was shot in the back and leg about 6:45 a.m. on Dec. 4 as he walked in front of the Hilton Hotel in midtown Manhattan. He died about a half-hour later.
Prosecutors have said Mangione was armed with a plastic 9-mm, 3D printed “ghost gun” equipped with a silencer. Mangione fled, they said, and was arrested five days later in Altoona, PA.
WHERE DID MANGIONE GET HIS GUN?
Larosiere said the claim that Gatalog provided Thompson’s killer with the 3D technology needed to make the murder weapon is “ridiculous because 1. We have no idea where it was downloaded from, 2. It’s also posted on [Wilson’s] website, and 3. That design was designed by somebody that doesn’t even have any connection to anyone else in the case.”
Larosiere said it appears the gun used to kill Brian Thompson was designed by someone with the username Chairmanone on the social media site X, formerly Twitter.
“Naturally I haven’t seen it since I didn’t get to inspect it, but I am a firearms expert and so it appears to be a Chairmanone first revision frame, and that’s a very old design. In fact, that was designed before the Gatalog was ever even a name,” Larosiere said.
Larosiere called Chairmanone “a really good guy” who’s independent “and not connected to any group.” He said he once knew his identity but has forgotten it.
“I’m not being cagey. I have a really bad memory. I do not remember,” he said.
Attorneys representing Wilson and Defense Distributed did not respond to Florida Bulldog requests for comment and to ask whether law enforcement has been contacted about Wilson’s allegations of serious criminality.
LAROSIERE V WILSON
Larosiere’s 57-page, multi-count copyright lawsuit, filed by his law firm partner Zachary Zermay of Coral Gables, contends that Defense Distributed and Wilson ripped off his documentation of 3D gun models he personally developed. “I spent tens of thousands of dollars in developing these things and that’s not even counting my time.”
Defense Distributed, based in Austin, TX, is a nonprofit founded by Cody Wilson and another man in 2012. In 2017 his book, Come and Take It, was described by publisher Simon & Schuster as “A startling philosophical manifesto for the twenty-first century on freedom of information. Come and Take It is the controversial yet thrilling story of the first ever-3D printable gun, developed by self-described crypto-anarchist and rogue thinker Cody Wilson.”
The Trace, a New York-based nonprofit and, like Florida Bulldog, a member of the Institute for Nonprofit News, covers gun violence in the U.S. and has reported that Wilson, who it called the “figurehead of the 3D-printed gun movement” was arrested and charged in 2018 in Travis County, TX with having sex with a minor and that in 2019, he pleaded guilty to a lesser felony charge of injury to a child. Wilson received seven years’ probation.
Besides Larosiere, Defense Distributed’s counterclaim identifies others alleged to be his co-principals in The Gatalog, and co-defendants in the counterclaim. One is Peter Celentano, of Bergen, NY, who was arrested by ATF agents in October and charged with the illegal possession of 59 illegal machine guns. Agents also recovered 3D printed pistol frames and handguns.
Another alleged principal is John Elik, a 26-year-old gunmaker from Illinois who court papers identify at using the social media persona Ivan the Terrible. The New York Times reported in September that “Mr. Elik has emerged as one of the most important figures in the nascent international industry of 3D-printed guns.”
The two remaining co-defendants in the counterclaim are Josh Kiel Stroke, of Arizona, and John Lettman, of Pennsylvania.
Stroke is identified in court papers as “The Gatalog enterprise’s ‘Chief of Propaganda’ since 2022, using social media to promote it and MAF and various websites in commerce. “Stroke harassed and harasses DEFCAD and its employees. The harassment was so frequent and violent that DEFCAD had to secure a workplace harassment injunction against him in Arizona’s Maricopa County Superior Court, which he is still violating. Stoke committed the extortion and threats of violence described below.”
John Lettman is described as The Gatalog’s “IT director and a systems administrator” and “collaborated with Celentano until Celentano’s arrest.” Lettman “executed and organized cyberattacks against the DEFCAD platform under the direction of Elik and Larosiere. Lettman “used an Iranian reverse proxy in an attempt to access federally controlled technical data on DEFCAD by defeating its geofencing and other standard export controls.”
Both Larosiere’s lawsuit and the counterclaim seek unspecified damages.
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