Nicholas Rossi in court in Utah rape case
Former RI Conman Nicholas Alahverdian, aka Nicholas Rossi, made his first appearance this week at Utah Courthouse.
Conman of Rhode Island was accused of forgerying his death and fleeing the United States to avoid allegations of rape and sexual assault.
According to the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office, a ju judge in Salt Lake County discovered Nicholas Alarverdien, 38, who was found guilty of first-degree rape of a 26-year-old Salt Lake County woman in 2008. The judges reached their conviction on Wednesday, August 13th, following a three-day trial.
“In this case, we are grateful to the survivors in this case for their willingness to move forward a few years after this attack occurred,” Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said in a statement. “We appreciate her patience when we worked to bring the defendant back to Salt Lake County so that this trial could be held and justice could be achieved. It took courage and courage to stand up to the attacker to hold him accountable.”
According to prosecutors, Alahverdian’s belief stems from accusations that he raped his then-girlfriend, whom he met online. Shortly after the two began dating, prosecutors said Allerverdians should have married a woman and bought a wedding ring.
But Aralverdian quickly became verbally emotionally abusive, prosecutors said. Prosecutors said the discussion at the mall became violent and when the couple returned to Aralverdian’s apartment, he refused to let her leave and rape her.
The charges will be punished for five years at Utah Correctional Facility, according to the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office. He is scheduled to be sentenced October 20th.
Alahverdian, who was charged under his previous surname Rossi, also faces additional rape fees involving another Utah woman in 2008. He has not yet gone to trial for those charges.
Nicholas Alahverdian handed over to us in 2024
Alahverdian has been held unbelievable at the Utah County Jail since January 2024 when authorities handed him over from Scotland. He spent three years in Scotland pretending to be “Arthur Knight,” a former Irish orphan and victim of misidentification, pretending to be “Arthur Knight,” and the strange pretense unfolded in front of international media and extradition courts.
A Scottish judge who tolerated Aralverdian’s charade at a hearing about his identity cleared the path to Aralverdian’s return to the United States – he concluded that “he is as cheating and deceiving as evasive and manipulative.”
Alahverdian finally gave up on the hoax while asking a Utah District Court judge to bail in November 2024. During the hearing, he argued that the long-standing deception and name change were part of an effort to protect himself from the “threat of death.”
Prosecutors argued that Alahverdian, who uses oxygen and a wheelchair, remains at flight risk despite his physical condition. The judge denied bail, noting that Aralverdian’s British wife was still offering him money “to help him with a potential flight.”
Why did Nicholas Araweldian forge his own death?
Alahverdian, who grew up in foster care and later became a critic of Rhode Island’s child welfare system, claims he was killed by an unknown state politician a decade ago for his advocacy work for state care children. In 2017, he escaped these suspected threats in a one-way battle with Ireland and pursued public relations efforts before eventually heading to Scotland.
Prosecutors said Alahverdian tried to forge his death and fled the United States to avoid being located. By 2019, Alahverdian was trying to remove her name from the registered sex offender list.
Meanwhile, the FBI began an investigation into Alahverdian for credit card fraud after the former foster father told authorities that he spent $200,000 on a card that Alahverdian photographed using his foster parent’s name and financial records.
In January 2020, Alahverdian began to spread the word to the Rhode Island media that he had late stage non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The following month he described the woman who himself was Aralverdian’s wife and in his name informed reporters that the Foundation had passed away.
Then, in September 2020, Utah County authorities issued an arrest warrant for his stepfather’s surname, Nicolas Rossi. Investigators later pursued him to Scotland after searching for his iCloud account and bank records, and he was arrested in hospital in December 2021 after awakening from coma due to Covid.
Alahverdian, who used several different aliases, has sued a judge in a Salt Lake County case in recent weeks, complaining that he is currently being charged with his birth name, Alahverdian. The judge denied the request.
What Aralverdians accused in Utah?
Authorities say Aralverdian was convicted in 2008 for exploring a woman at Ohio Community College. He then tried to sue the woman for honour of libel damage, and cast his request for appeal when a significant portion of the new evidence was presumably controlled by fake blog posts.
Investigators said the DNA of the case linked Aral Verdian to the rape of a 21-year-old woman in Orem, Utah in September 2008.
This week’s trial, which began on August 11th, comes from allegations that he raped his ex-girlfriend in November 2008. DNA evidence did not link him to the case, but investigators moved forward after admitting Aral Verdian in his international extradition lawsuit.
As in Orem’s case, authorities say Aralverdian met a woman from Salt Lake City online. They went on a short date and bought wedding rings before their relationship surged quickly.
But after a violent debate at the mall — Aralverdian called the police and reported that she hit him if she didn’t return him to her car — the two returned to his apartment where they raped her, police said.
