An American fugitive who faked his personal loss of life to flee fraud and sexual assault costs within the US was lastly caught after being admitted to a hospital in Scotland final month with extreme signs of Covid.
Nicholas Alahverdian, 34, was arrested on an Interpol discover on the Queen Elizabeth College Hospital in Glasgow on December 13 after almost dying of Covid-19.
He used the title Arthur Knight when detained by Police Scotland however it’s believed he has used not less than eight completely different aliases since happening the run in 2018.
Alahverdian, whose additionally makes use of the surname Rossi, fled the US in 2018 after DNA linked him to a intercourse assault in Ohio amid reviews of comparable offences elsewhere.
In line with the Utah County Lawyer’s Workplace, he’s accused of fraud and sexual assault costs in not less than two states.
An obituary was posted in February 2020 which claimed Alahverdian had died of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and that his final phrases had been ‘worry not and run towards the bliss of the solar’.
Nicholas Alahverdian , 34, was arrested in December after being admitted to a hospital in Glasgow, Scotland, with extreme signs of Covid. He had fled the US in 2018 after
However doubts had been raised when an individual claiming to be his widow insisted his ashes could be scattered at sea and refused to point out his loss of life certificates to newspaper The Windfall Journal. Alahverdian’s foster mom additionally recognised the adulatory feedback in his obituary to be much like his writing type.
A 12 months after his purported ‘loss of life’, reviews within the US emerged that police didn’t consider he was lifeless and had been actively looking him.
He had beforehand been questioned by the FBI over a bank card fraud allegation.
However he’s now topic to extradition proceedings to Utah after DNA led officers to Scotland the place he was present in hospital on a ventilator.
In 2008, Alahverdian was convicted of two sexual assault costs in Ohio and in 2017 his DNA from that case was uploaded to a nationwide database.
Prosecutors declare that in 2020, his DNA matched samples from a sexual assault stated to have taken place in Utah and found he was suspect in various different incidents throughout America.
He additionally had a dwell warrant out for his arrest after failing to register as a intercourse offender in Rhode Island.
Alahverdian is now the topic of extradition proceedings instigated by the Utah County Lawyer David Leavitt, who thanked police worldwide together with Police Scotland, for locating the needed man.
He stated: ‘Our workplace is grateful for the numerous interagency collaboration of regulation enforcement to convey this suspect to justice.’
Mr Alahverdian, 34, was arrested on an Interpol discover on the Queen Elizabeth College Hospital in Glasgow on December 13 after almost dying of Covid-19
An official Utah County Lawyer assertion added: ‘Investigators additionally realized that Nicholas Rossi had fled the nation to keep away from prosecution in Ohio and tried to guide investigators and state legislators in different states to consider that he was deceased.
‘By the diligent efforts of SBI Brokers, and varied investigators in different states and businesses, and in cooperation with the Utah County Lawyer’s Workplace, Mr. Rossi was found to be residing underneath an assumed title in Scotland.
‘He has been taken into custody and the Utah County Lawyer’s Workplace is working with federal and worldwide businesses to extradite Mr Rossi again to Utah.’
Rhode Island State Police Main Robert A. Creamer stated: ‘He was situated in Scotland a couple of month in the past, the place he was on a ventilator.’
A Police Scotland spokeswoman stated: ‘Officers arrested a 34-year-old man in Glasgow on Monday, December 13, in reference to a global arrest warrant. A report was submitted to the procurator fiscal.’
A Crown Workplace spokeswoman added: ‘I can affirm that Arthur Knight appeared by way of video hyperlink from QEUH on Thursday 23 December 2021 in relation to extradition proceedings for the US.
‘No future dates have but been mounted.’