One of the seven Cornell fraternity members accused in connection with an alleged gang rape at the Ivy League university is believed to have returned to Dubai, Our News Outlet can exclusively reveal.
Umar Matthew Ingalls entered Cornell University in 2023 after winning a highly sought-after place. His prospects changed dramatically after a former female student accused him and six other men of sexually assaulting her during a fraternity party in October 2024.
Ingalls, now 21, was subsequently expelled from Cornell after an internal university investigation.
A neighbor of Ingalls told Our News Outlet they believe he has gone back to the Middle East, where he grew up in privileged circumstances and attended an elite private school in Emirates Hills—an affluent Dubai neighborhood frequently described as the “Beverly Hills of Dubai.”
The allegations involving Ingalls and his Chi Phi fraternity brothers became public last month after a former Cornell student, identified as Jane Doe in court documents, filed a civil lawsuit. She alleges the men gave her ketamine and sexually assaulted her inside the fraternity house on October 19, 2024.
Recently surfaced audio, said to capture a phone conversation between Ingalls and Doe in the days following the alleged incident, records him discussing how they initially became involved in a threesome. He also tells her that she had said she was sober that night.
However, records obtained by ABC News show that Ingalls later told campus police he had been too intoxicated by alcohol and ketamine to give consent.
In that account, Ingalls alleged that Doe had sexually assaulted him, offering a sharply different version of events from the allegations outlined in her lawsuit.
Matthew Ingalls, one of the Cornell fraternity members expelled from the Ivy League university following sexual assault allegations, played rugby and joined Chi Phi, one of the oldest fraternities in the United States, after enrolling at Cornell
A LinkedIn profile in Ingalls’ name, accompanied by his photograph, was later deleted. It had listed him as working for Data Annotation, an artificial intelligence company that previously told TMZ it had blocked Ingalls from its platform in May 2024
Ingalls has not issued a public response since the civil lawsuit was filed. Attorneys representing several of the other men have denied the allegations and any wrongdoing.
Our News Outlet has uncovered additional details and photographs documenting Ingalls’ privileged childhood, including his education at one of Dubai’s leading private schools and his years moving between the Middle East and New England.
Public property records indicate that Ingalls spent part of his early childhood in Connecticut and Washington before relocating with his family to the United Arab Emirates around 2016.
His father, who was educated at Yale, is a prominent educator at the American University in Dubai. He did not respond to requests for comment from Our News Outlet.
His mother works as a tutor in Arabic and English and as a wellness coach.
Ingalls and his younger brother also visited their paternal grandparents, who divided their time between Dartmouth, Massachusetts, and Fort Myers, Florida, until their deaths in recent years.
Yearbook images obtained by Our News Outlet show that Ingalls attended an elite private school in Emirates Hills, the wealthy Dubai enclave often nicknamed the “Beverly Hills of Dubai.”
The school serves many of Dubai’s wealthiest families and routinely sends its graduates to prestigious universities worldwide, including Ivy League institutions.
By 2023, Ingalls had received several college offers, including admissions opportunities from Cornell, Tufts and the University of Alabama, according to an Instagram post that has since been deleted and appears to have been published by an account connected to his school.
Video obtained by ABC News allegedly shows the fraternity-house bedroom where Jane Doe says she was sexually assaulted by seven Chi Phi fraternity members
The footage shows trash littered around the room where Doe alleges she was assaulted. The clip also shows a metal bedframe without a mattress and a platform bed inside the bedroom
One of Ingalls’ neighbors told Our News Outlet they believe he has returned to the Middle East, where he enjoyed a privileged upbringing and attended an elite private school in Emirates Hills, the wealthy enclave often dubbed the ‘Beverly Hills of Dubai’
He ultimately opted to study math and economics at Cornell, in Ithaca, New York, and quickly immersed himself in campus life.
Ingalls joined Chi Phi, one of America’s oldest fraternities, and played on the rugby team. Archived team rosters show he played alongside two of the other defendants named in the lawsuit, Winston Lee and Scott Kretzschmar.
Cornell Rugby said it permanently removed several players involved in the 2024 alleged attack, in a statement first reported by the Cornell Sun, the campus newspaper.
Ingalls’ promising collegiate future would soon start to unravel.
In her 101-page lawsuit, Doe alleges Ingalls, whom she considered a friend, lured her to the frat house when she was already heavily intoxicated from a night of drinking in town.
Ingalls allegedly propositioned Doe, then 20, for a threesome with him and frat brother, Jonathan Newell, when she says she was already too drunk to consent.
Despite this, she claims they pressured her to snort Ketamine with them and plied her with marijuana and high-proof rum.
Ingalls then ‘forced’ oral sex on Doe while Newell allegedly raped her and repeatedly slapped her buttocks hard enough to leave bruising, her lawsuit alleges.
Ingalls left the room for a nap as a third frat member, Gillio Lopes, entered and allegedly began kissing Doe. He and Newell then allegedly sexually assaulted her, the filing claims.
At around 1.42am, Newell allegedly sent a vile message to the fraternity’s Snapchat group saying there was ‘free p***y’ upstairs, a screenshot included with the complaint shows.
The lawsuit accuses Newell of encouraging other members of Chi Phi to join what it describes as the ‘gang rape’ of Doe.
Ingalls returned to the room, joined by several other frat members, including Winston Lee, Diego Sarabia, Scott Norris and Scott Kretzschmar.
Ingalls is among the seven Ivy League fraternity brothers accused of being involved in the gang rape of a woman only identified as Jane Doe. In a screenshot of Snapchat messages exchanged between the frat boys and filed with the complaint, Ingalls allegedly said ‘I f***ing love chi phi’ and ‘Like you can walk in and whip it out’
One man involved in the Snapchat group had allegedly asked ‘Shop still open?’ shortly after a photograph of Jane Doe was shared amongst them, according to a screenshot filed with the complaint
The lawsuit claims all seven men snorted Ketamine off Doe’s naked body, before five of them eventually left the room.
Ingalls and Lee allegedly coerced Doe into snorting more Ketamine, rendering her ‘completely incapacitated,’ before they allegedly raped her, the lawsuit claims.
The alleged attack ended at 5.45am, when Doe lost consciousness, the filing states.
In a sworn statement, Doe said the alleged ordeal left her so traumatized she was forced to quit Cornell.
Doe reported her claims to Cornell University Police on November 8, initially telling investigators, ‘I can say with 100 percent confidence I was raped,’ according to a reported transcript of her interview.
In May 2025, the university conducted a Title IX investigation, resulting in disciplinary sanctions against several of the frat brothers, including expulsions and suspensions from Cornell, according to the university’s statement.
Ingalls and fellow defendant Jonathan Newell were expelled after Cornell found they were responsible for sexual assault of Doe, according to discipline summaries reviewed by the New York Times.
The other defendants were handed varying punishments, including suspensions, bans on contacting Doe and were required to write reflective essays.
Cornell also permanently banned Chi Phi from campus.
A subsequent report prepared by Cornell reportedly included apparently amicable text messages Doe sent Newell and Ingalls days after the alleged attack.
In one exchange, Newell allegedly texted Doe to apologize ‘for how things went down,’ saying he should have ‘shut it down and kick[ed] people out before it got way out of hand.’
Doe allegedly replied: ‘Non[e] of the sexual stuff was illegal and honestly i really liked being w u.’
The case has roiled the Ivy League school after the alleged victim, identified only as Jane Doe in court documents, filed a lawsuit in September claiming she was sexually assaulted in the Chi Phi fraternity house (pictured) in 2024
Cornell’s Chi Phi chapter, which was founded in 1868, was shut down in 2024 following the allegations and remains barred from campus to this day
In a separate exchange with Ingalls, Doe allegedly wrote ‘everyone knows’ and that her ‘reputation is destroyed and I’m utterly ashamed.’
She allegedly wrote people needed to ‘grow up ‘cause sexuality and sex…is changing and stuff like this is going to become more common,’ adding ‘I luv [sic] you King.’
Meanwhile, newly surfaced audio of a phone call Doe and Ingalls apparently had in the days after the alleged rape captured him telling her: ‘You did tell me you were sober, by the way.’
The audio, obtained by ABC News, showed differing recollections of the alleged attack – with Doe telling Ingalls that he ‘already knew I was 10 shots deep’ when the alleged assault occurred.
Ingalls, for his part, insisted that she had convinced him she was not intoxicated and ‘hadn’t been anywhere’ that night.
Later, Doe asked Ingalls for details about the night, including asking how they ended up in a threesome in his fraternity house.
‘So, you come in, say hi, and we start dancing for maybe like three to five minutes… And then I pop the question, you say yes,’ Ingalls responded, according to the audio.
He said, according to the audio, that they ‘didn’t know who else to bring’ into the threesome, so he found another man on the dancefloor who agreed, ‘and then we go upstairs.’
Nowhere in the audio did he mention that he had messaged his fraternity group chat on Snapchat during the alleged assault.
Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten declined to prosecute in 2024. He said a signed statement by Doe did not allege she was drugged, incapacitated or forced to engage in any sexual acts.
At a press conference on Friday, Governor Kathy Hochul appointed New York Attorney General Letitia James as a special prosecutor to conduct a fresh criminal investigation into the matter.
Quizzed over a September 28 Facebook post in which she seemed to pre-judge the men’s guilt, James barked at a reporter: ‘I will not comment on a Facebook post.’
The defendants have consistently denied any wrongdoing and never faced any criminal charges.
Court papers listed Ingalls at a Fairfield, Connecticut address belonging to his paternal uncle.
But when contacted by Our News Outlet, a woman at the property said Ingalls does not live there and declined to comment on the allegations.
Our News Outlet contacted Ingalls’ father in Dubai for comment. His mother could not be reached.
A deleted LinkedIn profile bearing Ingalls’ name previously listed him as working for Data Annotation, an AI firm. The firm previously told TMZ it blocked Ingalls from its platform in May 2024.
A neighbor of Ingalls’ relatives said he had not been seen at their home recently and believed he was in Dubai with his father.
