Authorities found a man thought to be dead in Scotland after faking his death to avoid criminal charges, The Providence Journal reported Wednesday.
Nicholas Alahverdian was found in Scotland hospitalized with COVID-19. “He was located in Scotland about a month ago, where he was on a ventilator,” Rhode Island State Police Maj. Robert Creamer told The Journal. (RELATED: Man Allegedly Tries To Fake His Own Death, Gets Caught Due To Typo In Death Certificate)
The Utah County Attorney’s Office said in a press release that he “had fled the country to avoid prosecution in Ohio and attempted to lead investigators and state legislators in other states to believe that he was deceased.” Alahverdian faked his death in February 2020, telling media outlets he was dying from late-stage cancer, according to the Journal.
Plans for elaborate memorials of his life were scuttled after law enforcement officials quietly spread the word that Nicholas Alahverdian might not be dead after all – and they were on his trail. https://t.co/Msl8vh6kG3
— Providence Journal (@projo) January 12, 2022
Alahverdian, who used Nicholas Rossi and other names as aliases, allegedly fled the country over impending sexual assault charges in Utah and other states, according to The Journal. His former foster mother told The Journal he allegedly amassed a debt of nearly $200,000 using her and her husband’s names, and his ex-wife has also claimed he owes her $60,000.
Alahverdian was convicted in 2008 on two sex-related charges in Ohio, according to The Journal. His DNA was recently found to be a match to that in a 2008 sexual assault case in Utah, and he is being considered a “suspect in a number of similar offenses in Utah and throughout the United State,” the Utah County Attorney’s Office said in the press release.
The Utah County Attorney’s Office said that he has been taken into custody and that it is “working with federal and international agencies to extradite” him back to the state.