Nicholas Alahverdian re-arrested in Scotland after bail-review hearing

Nicholas Alahverdian, the Rhode Island man who faked his death in 2020 and was being held on bail in Scotland on a rape charge from Utah, was re-arrested and taken into custody Thursday following a bail-review hearing.

"Our office received news this morning and it is confirmed that a warrant was granted this morning at Edinburgh Sheriff Court for the arrest of Nicholas Alahverdian/Rossi," said David Leavitt, Utah County Attorney, in a statement issued Thursday afternoon.

The statement said Alahverdian had been apprehended at the Scotland address where he's been living and was due to appear in an Edinburgh court Friday.

More in this case:

• Utah prosecutor: 'It could take months' to extradite Alahverdian, who made bail in Scotland

• A woman in Ohio met Nick Alahverdian for lunch. Then he sexually assaulted her.

• Nicholas Alahverdian, suspected of faking his death, was found in Scotland. What we know

Alahverdian has been living in an upscale neighborhood of Glasgow called Woodlands, favored by young professionals and students, with a woman who has been helping him, the Scottish Sun reported.

The woman accepted a delivery of oxygen at the apartment on Tuesday along with a home ventilation machine, the newspaper said, and she has also answered the door to police when they have checked on Alahverdian.

Alahverdian, 34, turned up at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow last month suffering from COVID-19. He was placed on a ventilator.

On Dec. 13 he was arrested and later arraigned there in the hospital.

Alahverdian was an obvious flight risk, Leavitt said in an interview with The Journal. But he said he trusted that Scottish officials were making the right decision by releasing him on bail.

Alahverdian went to great lengths to fake his death in February 2020, informing Rhode Island reporters and state lawmakers weeks earlier that he had late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma and asking them to commemorate his “warrior” work for child welfare.

But law-enforcement officials from Utah to Providence were apparently suspicious of a ruse.

The FBI had issued a warrant for his arrest for an Ohio fraud complaint and were actively searching for him, in cooperation with the Rhode Island State Police.

Alahverdian’s former foster mother in Ohio told The Journal a year ago that Alahverdian had fraudulently obtained 22 credit cards and loans under her husband’s name and run up debts totaling almost $200,000.

Luckily, she said, she froze her accounts when she found that someone was trying to set up accounts in her name, too.

Utah prosecutors were so confident that Alahverdian was still alive that they didn’t issue an arrest warrant for him in connection with the 2008 rape in Orem, Utah, until months after his supposed demise.

Last week, when law-enforcement officials confirmed Alahverdian’s capture, Leavitt said investigators had uncovered police reports in four states, including Rhode Island, involving allegations of Alahverdian assaulting or harassing women.

On Thursday The Journal reported that between July 2010 and May 2011, Pawtucket police took at least four complaints about Alahverdian from women alleging domestic assault to unwanted sexual advances and harassment.

The BBC reported that Thursday's re-arrest of Alahverdian, who faces extradition, followed a bail-review hearing in his case in Edinburgh Sheriff Court.

In his statement, Utah prosecutor Leavitt said, "We again express our gratitude to the law-enforcement agencies for their diligent efforts in this matter to bring this individual to justice."

Email Tom Mooney at: tmooney@providencejournal.com or call, 401-277-7359

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Nicholas Alahverdian had been on bail in upscale part of Glasgow