The man who faked his death, fooled the world, is now facing justice for rape in Utah

A Rhode Island man who once staged his own death in an elaborate international hoax to evade sexual assault charges has been convicted of first-degree rape in Utah, prosecutors announced.

A Salt Lake County jury on Wednesday, August 13, found 38-year-old Nicholas Alahverdian guilty of raping a 26-year-old woman in 2008. The verdict followed a three-day trial, according to the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office.

“We are grateful to the survivor in this case for her willingness to come forward, years after this attack took place,” District Attorney Sim Gill said in a statement. “We appreciate her patience as we worked to bring the defendant back to Salt Lake County so that this trial could take place and she could get justice. It took courage and bravery to take the stand and confront her attacker to hold him accountable.”


Prosecutors said Alahverdian met the woman online, began dating her, and quickly proposed. The pair purchased wedding rings, but the relationship soon turned abusive. After a public argument at a shopping mall turned violent, the woman told police, Alahverdian took her back to his apartment, refused to let her leave, and raped her.

The charge carries a penalty of five years to life in the Utah State Correctional Facility. Sentencing is set for October 20.

Alahverdian, who was previously charged under the surname Rossi, still faces another rape trial in Utah involving a different woman from 2008.

From “Arthur Knight” to US extradition

Alahverdian has been held without bail since January 2024, when authorities extradited him from Scotland. For three years, he posed as “Arthur Knight,” claiming to be a former Irish orphan wrongly accused, in a bizarre performance that played out in the press and in Scottish courts.

A Scottish judge who presided over his extradition proceedings later ruled he “is as dishonest and deceitful as he is evasive and manipulative.”

He dropped the hoax in November 2024 during a Utah bail hearing, insisting his deception was to avoid “death threats” rather than evade justice. Prosecutors argued he remained a flight risk, pointing out his English wife continued to send him money “that could assist him in potential flight.” The judge denied bail.

Long history of evasion

Alahverdian, who grew up in foster care in Rhode Island and became an outspoken critic of the state’s child welfare system, claimed he fled the US in 2017 due to threats from politicians. By 2019, he was trying to have his name removed from a sex offender registry.

FBI investigators were also looking into allegations that he used his former foster father’s identity to run up $200,000 in credit card charges.

He told Rhode Island reporters he had late-stage non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. A month later, a woman identifying herself as his wife claimed he had died. But in September 2020, Utah County issued an arrest warrant for Nicholas Rossi, his stepfather’s surname, in connection with another rape case.

Authorities tracked him to Scotland via iCloud and banking records. He was arrested in December 2021 in a Glasgow hospital after recovering from a COVID-19 coma.

Other Utah allegations

Alahverdian was previously convicted in Ohio of groping a woman at a community college in 2008. Investigators say DNA from that case tied him to the rape of a 21-year-old woman in Orem, Utah, in September 2008, a separate incident from the case decided this week.

The Salt Lake City victim in the current trial came forward after seeing news coverage of his extradition fight. She testified that after the shopping mall altercation in November 2008, Alahverdian threatened to call the police and accuse her of hitting him if she didn’t drive him home, and then raped her once they arrived at his apartment.

No DNA evidence was available in the Salt Lake case, prosecutors said, but jurors convicted based on testimony and supporting evidence.

Alahverdian has petitioned to be prosecuted under his birth name, but a Utah judge denied the request.