A 19-year-old Texan named Daniel Moreno-Gama was arrested on accusations of throwing a Molotov cocktail at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's house, then driving to OpenAI's San Francisco headquarters with a jug of kerosene and threatening to burn the building down, according to Rolling Stone.
Months earlier, Moreno-Gama—using the Discord handle "Butlerian Jihadist"—had mentioned "Luigi-ing some tech CEOs" to a podcast producer. That's a reference to Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. (Mangione has pleaded not guilty.)
Journalist Andy Mills interviewed Moreno-Gama on his podcast "The Last Invention" in late January. When Mills asked whether killing people like Sam Altman would be smart, Moreno-Gama said: "One person is not really going to do that much of a dent. It's almost all risk, no reward." Three months later, he was arrested.
Moreno-Gama is not alone. A 29-year-old California man named Chamel Abdulkarim allegedly set fire to a toilet paper warehouse, then told witnesses his actions compared to when "Luigi popped that motherfucker." Prosecutors also claim Jonathan Rinderknecht, accused of starting the Palisades fire, searched for Mangione's name alongside terms like "kill all the billionaires."
Moreno-Gama has pleaded not guilty to all charges, and his lawyer has requested a mental health evaluation.
