Man who faked death to elude authorities can be extradited to Utah, Scottish minister rules
The Scottish government has officially approved the extradition of Nicholas Alahverdian to Utah to face sex charges, and in so doing rekindled an investigation of an unsettled rape claim in England that could potentially delay his departure for years.
Just this week, days after a Scottish judicial minister signed the formal order for his extradition, police from Essex, England investigating the 2017 rape allegation attempted to interview Alahverdian, who remains imprisoned in Edinburgh.
But Alahverdian refused to meet with the investigators, said two people familiar with the case. The police had been stymied from interviewing Alahverdian until the full extradition process was complete.
Could Alahverdian's extradition be delayed by this charge?
The allegation has yet to lead to any formal charges against the former Rhode Island fugitive. But if charged, that case would have to be adjudicated first before Alahverdian is extradited back to the U.S., his public defender Mungo Bovey said in June during Alahverdian’s extradition hearing.
A rape conviction in England could put Alahverdian, 36, behind bars for between 8 or 10 years before he was ever transported to Utah, said one Scottish extradition lawyer.
More: 'Dateline NBC' to cover story of RI fugitive Nicholas Alahverdian. Here's the story.
Who is Nicholas Alahverdian and what is his connection to Rhode Island?
Alahverdian was once, two decades ago, a familiar State House presence as the former foster care kid who advocated for changes within the Department of Children Youth and Families.
But away from the public stage, he earned a nefarious reputation among local police departments, Family Court judges and women as a manipulative and threatening con man.
In 2020 he faked his death as the FBI pursued him for $200,000 in alleged credit card fraud, taken out in his former foster father’s name, and as Utah authorities were preparing the first warrant that they said would connect him to a 2008 rape in Orem.
Since then Utah authorities have charged him with a second rape and an incident of sexual battery as well.
In the years leading up to his staged death (he announced to local media he was going to die of cancer) Alahverdian seemed already to be taking steps to cover his trail.
More: Nicholas Alahverdian's early years set the stage for a life of deception
In 2019 he hired former Rhode Island attorney general Jeff Pine to have his name removed from Rhode Island’s sex offender registry. One of the arguments Pine used successfully to convince a judge was that Alahverdian was out of the country and had sworn never to return.
Background on the Essex case
In 2017 – in striking similarity to more than a half dozen other women in four states who claim to have been threatened or assaulted by Alahverdian – the woman from Essex met Alahverdian online.
He pushed his way into her life, the woman told The Journal, as he was making a seemingly hasty departure from the U.S.
In an exchange of text messages she showed The Journal, Alahverdian was adamant about moving in with her before he ever left the States or met her in person.
“Every single boundary that I set, he broke,” the woman told the newspaper last year. “Before I knew it, he had moved in.... Within days he was talking about getting married and doing calculations about how long it would take him to get his residency. In a space of five or six days, I was completely broken down.”
The rape allegedly happened within a week of him moving in with her, she said.
Alahverdian insists authorities have the wrong man
Scottish authorities arrested Alahverdian in a Glasgow hospital in December 2021, where he almost died of COVID, according to medical staff who treated him.
Alahverdian has ever since insisted that authorities arrested the wrong man; that his name is Arthur Knight, an Irish orphan turned English academic who taught at the local university sporting bow ties and homburg hats.
The first phase of his extradition hearing dragged on for months, as Alahverdian kept up his outrageous charade, insisting, for instance, that the matching fingerprints and his identifying tattoos, were the insidious work of hospital staff who conspired with Utah prosecutors to gather fake evidence while he lay comatose.
In August, Extradition Court Sheriff Norman McFadyen, who had endured Alahverdian’s delaying antics and “fanciful” defense, ruled there were no barriers to sending him to Utah.
McFadyen said of Alahverdian: “he is as dishonest and deceitful as he is evasive and manipulative."
"These unfortunate facets of his character," he continued, "have undoubtedly complicated and extended what is ultimately a straightforward case."
Alahverdian had 14 days from the Judicial minister’s Sept. 28th decision to file an appeal request. If he does, it would take about three months for a hearing on the request to be heard, said one Scottish extradition lawyer.
Contact Tom Mooney at: tmooney@providencejournal.com
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This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Alahverdian, who faked his death to avoid capture, to be sent back to Utah
