Interpol fugitive who faked his death found on Scots Covid ward
ONE of Interpol’s most wanted, who faked his own death in America, has been found two years later in a Glasgow hospital – after he nearly died for real from Covid.
Nicholas Alahverdian was thought to have died of cancer surrounded by his wife and two children in February 2020.
US newspapers documented the passing of a pillar of the Rhode Island community, who was remembered for advocating reform of the state’s child welfare system.
Said to have been motivated after himself suffering sexual abuse while in the care of state agencies, Mr Alahverdian was honoured by the local mayor with a special citizen citation. But the ‘upstanding’ citizen was actually Nicholas Rossi, 34, a convicted sex offender wanted for further alleged assaults in the US, and he was not dead.
He changed names once more to Arthur Knight and started a new life in Scotland where he successfully evaded capture until he was struck down with Covid last December. Rossi checked into Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital where, close to death, he was put on a ventilator.
Medics discovered his real identity through his DNA and alerted the police when they found he was on Interpol’s red list.
Officers swooped and he appeared via video link from hospital to face extradition proceedings on December 23. ‘He certainly has gone to elaborate means to hide himself,’ David Leavitt, Utah County Attorney, told the Washington Post.
‘I’ve been practising law, both as a prosecutor and a defence attorney for 30 years – this is a first.’
Rossi was convicted of two sexual assaults in Ohio in 2008 and his DNA was uploaded to a national database in 2017. Two years ago it was matched to a sexual assault in Utah and investigators later found he ‘was a suspect in a number of similar offences’.
He was questioned around the same time by the FBI over a fraud complaint while living as Alahverdian.
But a few weeks later Rossi claimed he had been diagnosed with late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma and had weeks to live. State police later said they did not believe Rossi was dead and were searching for him.
Mr Leavitt said Rossi’s DNA had ‘created a hit’ at the hospital which led to him being detained.
Police Scotland said: ‘Officers arrested a 34-yearold man in Glasgow on December 13, in connection with an international arrest warrant. A report was submitted to the fiscal [prosecutor].’
‘DNA revealed his true identity’