June 17, 2022
A Reuters investigation shows that Arian Taherzadeh, the man arrested for impersonating a US law enforcement officer and ingratiating himself with Secret Service agents assigned to guard the US senior leadership, has massed more than $1 million in debts in recent years that he has avoided paying.
Reuters published a lengthy report on its findings of Taherzadeh’s shady financial record.
In the years leading up to his arrest several weeks ago (see Iran Times of May 20, Page 16), Taherzadeh and his now-defunct companies left behind over $1 million in debt owed to car dealership financing arms, sports companies, financial institutions, former employees, county governments, apartment and office complexes, and a DJ company, the Reuters review of court records and other documents shows.
In at least 12 cases, Taherzadeh did not show up in court, leading judges to issue default judgments against him.
In a brief interview with Reuters April 21 at the front door of his father’s house in Sterling, Virginia, where Taherzadeh is under house arrest awaiting trial, he did not dispute the trail of defaults shown in the court records. “I think a lot of it is being taken out of context,” Taherzadeh said. “I can’t say anything else, I’m sorry.”
He added that people can say whatever they want to say about him. “Everybody’s an opportunist right now,” he said.
His partner in the impersonation case, Pakistani-born Haider Ali, tried unsuccessfully to sue Taherzadeh in 2017 for $150,000 in unpaid wages and for failing to repay a $1 million loan, court records show.
None of the money Taherzadeh owes has ever been recovered, court records show.
Prosecutors say Taherzadeh and Ali lavished gifts on Secret Service agents, including one assigned to protect First Lady Jill Biden, such as rent-free apartments in a Washington luxury complex, drones, iPhones and firearms.
When the FBI raided properties associated with the men, it recovered so many weapons, surveillance equipment, hard drives and other evidence that it needed a moving truck to haul it all away.
A judge determined that Taherzadeh, 40, and Ali, 35, were not a danger or a flight risk and released them to house arrest under the supervision of their parents.
Gregory Smith, Ali’s attorney, said in court that his client was duped by Taherzadeh. He told Reuters that prosecutors presented an inaccurate account of his client: “The facts have not matched the rhetoric.”
Court records and other documents reviewed by Reuters illustrate the debts and defaults Taherzadeh left behind before he began allegedly posing as a federal law enforcement agent.
“Ari went from being an entrepreneur playboy for like five years … to being reformed and police-like and a military wannabe,” said one former business associate who said Taherzadeh had taken money from his personal account.
In 2014, online domain and Washington, DC, corporate records show Taherzadeh launched a company called AET Holdings, a technology consulting firm that also offered web hosting services.
Around the same time, he was an employee of the United Negro College Fund, which offers scholarships for students attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
People who knew Taherzadeh told Reuters they were wowed by his tech skills. An AET income statement dated December 2015 seen by Reuters said the company had about $15.8 million in revenue and recorded profit of more than $4 million that year.
“I was impressed,” said Moses Kamai, who was hired by AET in December 2015 as a program management director and offered a $190,000 salary, a few days after he attended a presentation Taherzadeh gave to the United Negro College Fund and the NAACP. “His pitch was solid.”
The fund’s general counsel confirmed Taherzadeh worked there until 2014, and that he made a business pitch, but said the fund never took him up on his proposal.
Kamai said he tried to bring in business, and that he flew to Hawaii to set up a deal with state officials for AET to open an office there.
When it came time to reimburse Kamai for his expenses and sign the paperwork with Hawaii, however, Taherzadeh refused.
Then, Kamai’s paychecks never showed up.
At the same time, Taherzadeh was posting photos on his private Instagram account of a luxury Mercedes and a Centurion Black American Express card reserved for the wealthiest clients, according to copies seen by Reuters.
Taherzadeh also pursued sponsorship deals and VIP box seats with Monumental Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Washington Capitals hockey team and the Washington Wizards basketball team, and the owners of what is now known as Capital One Arena, according to court records, photographs and two people familiar the matter.
In February 2016, Taherzadeh purchased a two-year license for a six-seat luxury suite worth more than $400,000, court records show.
In September 2015, he entered a sponsorship deal with Monumental Sports, agreeing to pay more than $300,000 for his AET company name and logo to be displayed on the scoreboard and elsewhere during games, according to a court record.
Taherzadeh agreed to donate 50 game tickets to members of the US military, in exchange for AET being recognized as an official sponsor on Military Night, the court records show.
Images posted on Taherzadeh’s AET Instagram account on February 6, 2016, show him attending Military Night and standing next to high-ranking military officials, including Mark Milley, now chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
But Taherzadeh never paid the sponsorship bill, and the checks he wrote bounced, court records show.
A judge awarded the arena and Monumental Sports more than $376,000 in 2017, and Mercedes-Benz Financial won a 2019 default judgment for nearly $20,000 on unpaid leases.
Kamai won a default judgment for more than $292,000 for lost wages and unpaid expenses. But every time his attorney has tried to garnish potential bank accounts for Taherzadeh, he has hit a dead end, Kamai’s attorney said.
Court records from Kamai’s legal case show accounts Taherzadeh held with HSBC bank were closed in 2016, a few months after a check he wrote for $65,000 to Monumental Sports bounced.
Those who are owed money say they were never able to get it back.
The ex-business associate who said he was scammed for thousands of dollars shared what he said was a text message exchange he had with Taherzadeh.
“You know everything,” Taherzadeh wrote. “Essentially I’m admitting I’m committing fraud to you…. Delete this text please.”
