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This is the moment an American fugitive, who faked his own death and fled to the UK to evade a rape charge, was arrested at his Glasgow apartment wearing an oxygen mask, burgundy colored pajamas and a velvet throw over his head.
Nicholas Alahverdian, 34, was still attached to an oxygen tank when Scottish police rolled him out of his Glasgow home in a wheelchair last Thursday.
He was arrested after skipping a scheduled extradition hearing and was transported via ambulance to an Edinburgh courthouse.
Since orchestrating his own death, Alahverdian has been enjoying a new life in Scotland, where he reportedly presented himself as an eccentric Panama hat-wearing university professor from Bristol.
He reportedly introduced himself to neighbors as ‘Arthur Knight’ – an affable ‘academic’ with a penchant for a three-piece suit with a pocket square and an upper class British accent. He was a regular at local bars, where he would be seen drinking expensive drams of single-malt whisky and bemoaning Brexit, according to The Times.
But in his previous life, Alahverdian is a convicted sex pest accused by numerous people of fraud, sexually deviant behavior, abuse, and extortion. Twice married to American wives, both women filed restraining orders against him.
During his most recent arrest, he draped a velvet blanket over his face and held his head low as Scottish officers wheeled him to a waiting ambulance. He appeared before a judge last Friday was ordered jailed until his next appearance over flight risk concerns.
Elusive conman Nicholas Alahverdian was transported from his Glasgow flat last week via ambulance to a court hearing in Edinburgh. He was seen in a wheelchair wearing an oxygen mask, pajamas, and socks
Since fleeing to Scotland, Alahverdian attempted to hide his true identity by pretending to be an eccentric Panama hat-wearing university professor from Bristol, neighbors have claimed
Alahverdian, 34, faked his own death in 2020 and fled the US to evade a rape charge in Utah
For nearly two years, Alahverdian lived quietly abroad after feigning terminal cancer and faking his own death. In his self-penned obituary, he claimed his ashes were scattered at sea following his February 29, 2020, ‘death’.
But his cover was blown after he was taken to hospital with a life-threatening case of Covid and placed on a ventilator last year. He was arrested December 13 by Interpol, which used tattoo scars to discover his true identity.
He was released on bail on December 23 under the understanding he needed more treatment, but the next day admitted himself from the hospital, Scottish prosecutors told court.
ProsecutorJennifer Johnston said during last Friday’s hearing that Alahverdian made several attempts to leave QEUH with oxygen canisters last month. On one occasion he tried to hire a private ambulance, and offered to pay about $135US to a taxi driver to take him West End Park Street home.
DailyMail.com recently detailed how he, while living in the United Kingdom under his assumed identity, swindled a Canadian TV star in 2020.
Canadian food writer and TV star Nafsika Antypas, 44, told DailyMail.com that shortly before his ‘death,’ Alahverdian moved abroad under the name Arthur Brown and began scamming her out of about $30,000US ($40,000CAD), all while his friends mourned his purported passing.
Antypas – a plant-based food advocate with her own TV show who lives in Montreal – virtually hired Brown as a freelance public relations manager to help grow her eponymous brand, believing he was an international business lawyer with experience working in television.
‘I feel really stupid,’ she told DailyMail.com this week. ‘I knew something was off about him.’
She said she believed him to be living in Dublin, Ireland, at the time of their online introduction with his purported wife, Miranda Knight. When they spoke on the phone, she said he had a British accent and pronounced stutter.
Canadian food personality Nafsika Antypas, 44, tells DailyMail.com that after his death, Alahverdian moved abroad under the name Arthur Brown and scammed her out of about $30,000US ($40,000CAD)
Rather than deliver on what he promised, Antypas discovered – after paying him $7,500US ($10,000CAD) a month for four months – that the man she knew as Arthur Brown was a phony who produced no results. When she demanded to see his work, she said he threatened to extort her unless she gave him an additional $55,000US ($70,000CAD).
Antypas hired Nicholas Alahverdian (pictured) – who at the time was using the alias Nicholas Brown – to help build her vegan food brand, she says
Texts, photos and emails Antypas shared with the DailyMail.com show how Alahverdian fabricated a red-headed wife, two family dogs and a myriad of illnesses – even sending her photos of his ‘wife’ in the hospital at one point – in order to avoid doing the work he promised her, based on credentials he never had in the first place.
Antypas says she ignored gnawing suspicions and – as he sent her friendly texts and presents for her birthday – lowered her guard.
But every time Antypas asked Alahverdian to produce his work, she said he suddenly fell ill with asthma, migraines or some other ailment. On other occasions, he blamed his sick ‘wife’ or hospitalized dog for failing to deliver.
On one occasion, she says he sent pictures of his so-called wife, who he said was a British national, lying unconscious in a hospital bed, as proof she was recovering from appendicitis.
During another time, he claimed he was taking his purported wife on a two-week cruise for their ‘second honeymoon’ and was unavailable to work.
‘I feel really stupid,’ Antypas told DailyMail.com this week. ‘I knew something was off about him’
Alahverdian claimed to be married to a British woman named Miranda Knight and texted a photo of this red-headed woman to Antypas. A private investigator could not find anyone by that name
Antypas says he sent pictures of his so-called wife, who he said was a British national, lying unconscious in a hospital bed, as proof she was recovering from appendicitis
In April 2020, she sent him a text advising him that she was cutting off payment until he could prove the $30,000 she had already given him was yielding results.
‘Hi Nicholas, hope you’re feeling better,’ she said. ‘I spoke to my accountant today and we agree that I cannot keep paying you your fee until you show me your work.
‘By now you were supposed to have raised sufficient funds for the tv show and other products we had discussed. I understand things can’t take off overnight but I believe 4 months was enough time to see SUFFICIENT results.’
Alahverdian’s response was filled with rage and, in keeping with his alias, even incorporated English spelling into his response, according to the text she shared with DailyMail.com
‘I’ll wait for you to wake so we can talk about this before I reply to your nonsensical comment,’ he replied.
‘Absolutely appalled by your comments but I will give you the benefit of the doubt and we can speak when it is morning there. But I am absolutely appalled.
‘I would be happy to “show you my work,” he continued.
‘I am shocked, appalled, and abhorred that you would insinuate that I’ve done nothing for you. We are on the brink of massive online sales with a correlating PR campaign on two continents and here you are patronizing me and telling me I’ve done nothing.’
‘Text me when you’re awake and we will talk,’ he added.
Alahverdian also claimed to have two dogs, which he would use an excuse when she asked him to show his work, blaming a hospitalized dog for failing to deliver
Antypas sent Alahverdian a text in late April, tell him she needed to see his work in order to keep paying him
He shot back at her, accusing her of being ‘patronizing’ and claiming to be on the ‘brink of massive sales’
The next day, he texted her again and threatened to set the libelous sites live if she didn’t respond within ‘one hour and 17 minutes’ to settlement negotiations, text messages show.
He later set the libelous websites claiming she was a fraud live, leaving her to hire a firm to restore her online reputation as she received a letter claiming to be from Alahverdian’s lawyer, again demanding $73,000 to fill out a year’s salary.
Her lawyers retorted that he actually owed her money to reimburse her for the money she spent restoring her reputation. They never received a response from Alahverdian or his alleged legal team, Antypas said.
In July of that year, she hired a private investigator to dig up information on Alahverdian but – armed with the wrong name and inaccurate background information – the investigator turned up nothing.
He was not able to find any evidence of Alahverdian’s purported wife, either.
Antypas said she finally discovered the truth about Alahverdian’s past after receiving a call from a reporter following his arrest last December in Scotland.
Antypas said she suspected from the beginning something was amiss with Alahverdian but, having been scammed before, thought she was just being paranoid.
He told her that if she did not pay him $70,000 within ‘one hour and 17 minutes,’ he would set the website live and share the fraud photos
When Antypas ended her business relationship with Alahverdian, he allegedly threatened to create a fake website about her, using SEO tricks to make it the top Google him
A letter from ‘Jonathan Franklin’, claiming to be Alahverdian’s lawyer, demanded $73,000 from Antypas. It said she owed him money to cover the remainder of his yearly salary, even though he was hired as a freelancer
Prosecutors in Utah are planning to try Alahverdian related to the alleged 2008 rape of his ex-girlfriend. He was previously convicted for an unrelated sexual assault during the same year at Sinclair Community College in Ohio.
He’s suspected of committing a string of other assaults in both states, as well as Rhode Island, where at least four women filed police reports against him related to alleged incidents in 2010 and 2011.
Since his fake death was exposed, more stories about his allegedly aggressive behavior toward women have emerged.
He faked his own death in 2000 and fled the country to evade sex and fraud allegations, and went as far as to pen and publish his own obituary
One woman told Pawtucket police that Alahverdian became ‘enraged’ after she rebuked his advances after a dinner date, according to police reports obtained by the Providence Journal.
While they were convening in his apartment later that night, he became ‘enraged’ after she rejected his advances and demanded to be compensated for the meal they shared.
After taking away her phone, he drove her to a nearby ATM and instructed her to withdraw $200. She acquiesced because ‘she felt she had no choice but to give him the money, in fear of further violence,’ the report said.
The night got stranger for the woman when Alahverdian ordered her to sign an agreement – while he videotaped – that said ‘she could not pursue legal action and that the money she gave him was for therapy for him due to her violent actions and her sexual addiction.’
One accuser told police that Alahverdian picked up the dinner tab during a date, but demanded to be repaid $200 after she refused his advances
This map shows the trail of havoc and alleged criminal behavior carried out by Nicholas Alahverdian across the US
Another accuser told police in July 2010 that Alahverdian lured her to his apartment under the guise that she’d be visiting his art studio. Instead, she told cops, he took away her phone and pressed her for sex.
When she refused his advances, he said ‘if she left, he would kill himself by stabbing himself in the chest with a knife,’ the Journal reported. Alahverdian was taken to hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.
Police returned to his apartment that November on a tip, and said they encountered an ‘extremely upset’ woman with injuries to both eyes.
The woman told cops that Alahverdian became angry after their dinner guests’ child began crying earlier that night, which led to a violent argument.
Alahverdian ‘grabbed her and knocked her to the ground and held her down’ and ‘slapped her on the facial area,’ the outlet reported.
He resisted arrest, prompting police to physically carry him out of the apartment and into the cruiser, where he repeatedly smashed his head against the metal bars while screaming ‘very loudly’.
He was pepper sprayed by the arresting officers in an effort to get him to stop self-harming.
An arrest warrant was issued for Alahverdian in 2011 for violating a restraining order obtained by his then-wife.
DailyMail.com has requested copies of the arrest reports from the Pawtucket police. It’s not clear whether Alahverdian was convicted or served jail time for the allegations.
Last week, a Scottish court heard that since his arrest received media attention, Police Scotland had received ‘a complaint of a domestic nature to police in Essex in 2017’ in relation to Rossi.
Alahverdian was so cunning that, as a young teenage, he nearly convinced a state representative to adopt him.
Former state representative Brian Coogan, 51, previously told DailyMail.com that he met and was charmed by Alahverdian in 2000, while he was working as a politician and Alahverdian was volunteering as an errand boy at the state house.
Coogan told DailyMail.com that he was initially enamored by the troubled teen – who claimed to be sexually and physically victimized in foster care – and moved to give him a permanent family after Alahverdian ‘begged me to adopt him’ shortly after they met.
On the day he was in court to begin adoption proceedings, Coogan said he overheard Alahverdian threatening a social worker, saying: ‘I’ll tell them you abused me, that you hit me.’
A judge later talked Coogan and his wife out of it, warning that he was ‘manipulative’ and prone to stealing peoples’ identities.
The charge Alahverdian is awaiting extradition for relates to the rape of a woman in Orem, Utah who he befriended on MySpace in 2008 and later attacked, Utah County District Attorney David Leavitt told DailyMail.com.
Source: dailymail
