Now in a Utah jail, RI fraudster Nick Alahverdian could face federal charges
Snared fugitive and former Rhode Islander Nicholas Alahverdian was being held at the Davis County Jail in Farmington, Utah, on Monday, three days after U.S. Marshals returned him from Scotland to the United States, and almost four years after he faked his own death.
Alahverdian, whose extradition case became an international sensation with his wild claims of being someone else, was expected to be transferred in coming days to a correctional facility in either Salt Lake County or Utah County, a spokeswoman said.
He’s charged in both those counties with rape dating back to 2008 and faces a third separate charge, sexual assault, out of Salt Lake County as well.
And according to court documents that were unsealed last month, he could also face a federal charge of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
As of Monday afternoon, the 36-year-old Alahverdian – charged under his stepfather’s surname he often used, Rossi – had not yet had a preliminary hearing to determine if he would be held over for arraignment.
Who is Nicholas Alahverdian?
Alahverdian, a former ward of the state and State House sycophant who once advocated for improvements in the child welfare system, fled Rhode Island as early as 2017 as various law enforcement agencies were tracking him.
The FBI had launched an investigation into claims he committed $200,000 in credit card fraud under his foster father’s name. And a year later, Utah authorities say, his DNA was matched with evidence collected from a 2008 rape kit.
More: RI's Nicholas Alahverdian returning to US four years after faking his death. What to know.
In 2019 he succeeded in getting his name off Rhode Island’s sex offender registry (he had been convicted of groping an Ohio woman in 2008) after his lawyer, former attorney general Jeffrey Pine, informed a judge that his client no longer lived in the country.
On Dec. 9 of that year, FBI Special Agent Ken Howard spoke to Alahverdian on the phone and communicated with him via an encrypted email server Alahverdian used, court records say.
(Alahverdian told The Journal in an interview that he actually called the agent to find out “what this investigation was all about.”)
Howard said Alahverdian told him at the time he was living in Ireland because “he believes there is no current extradition with the United States.”
In February 2020, a self-admiring obituary, describing him as a “warrior” most deserving of the homage being paid him by “statesmen and stateswomen” across Rhode Island, told the lie of his death.
In December 2021, he awoke from a coma in a Glasgow hospital after being sick with COVID to learn he was being arrested on an Interpol warrant.
Contact Tom Mooney at: tmooney@providencejournal.com
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Nicholas Rossi, aka Nick Alahverdian, now in Utah jail awaiting charges
