Who is Arian Taherzadeh? Judge decides Fake DHS agent with multiple passports is NOT flight risk!
Both men who were arrested for impersonating Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents will not be in pre-trial detention, a Washington DC judge ruled. Haider Shah-Ali and Arian Taherzadeh, who were busted for cozying up to federal agents reportedly aren't a flight risk, the judge believes despite the fact that they had multiple passports and visas when they were busted.
Shah-Ali and Taherzadeh spent over one and a half years living at a luxury DC apartment, which they used as a base to get close to federal agents amongst them Secret Service agents. Agents on President Joe Biden's, First Lady Jill Biden's, and Vice President Kamala Harris' details were all involved, and have subsequently been placed on leave. Not only did the duo shower agents with lavish gifts, but they also had illegal high-capacity magazines and a host of other weapons.
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It is unclear where both men got the funding to pull off such a scheme, or what their ultimate goal was. Prosecutors claimed Shah-Ali had links to Pakistani intelligence, and Taherzadeh told them that Shah-Ali was the one funding their scheme, but nonetheless, the judge decided both men wouldn't serve pre-trial detention.
Who is Arian Taherzadeh?
As with Shah-Ali, little is known about the 40-year-old Taherzadeh. We know he is now living with his family in Sterling, Virginia on GPS monitoring. A DC judge said he was not a flight risk, and noted he was not convinced the duo presented a larger national security issue. The judge dubbed the duo's behavior as "sophomoric behavior, not the sort of serious dangerous conduct that requires pre-trial detention."
Shortly before his arrest, Taherzadeh deleted photos and videos from his social media accounts and appears to have taken many of them down as well. The actions led prosecutors to claim obstruction of justice, but so far a formal charge has not been filed in that regard. Taherzadeh's lawyer claimed the content was deleted because he was "embarrassed". The Daily Beast managed to uncover an old friend of his, with whom he once started an IT consultancy firm in Kansas City.
In November 2007, Taherzadeh was arrested for check fraud, to which he pled guilty in exchange for a suspended 180-day sentence and two years probation. That case led him to flee Missouri for DC "in the mid-to-late 2000s", even though prosecutors eventually dropped the case. However, it wasn't his only run-in with the law. Taherzadeh once spent two weeks in jail on DWI charges, and once sued for nonpayment of rent and credit card bills.
The Daily Mail also uncovered that in July 2013, he was charged with a class 6 felony of Strangulation Resulting in Wounding, and one count of Assault and Battery on a Family Member. Reportedly, he assaulted his wife, whose name is not known. While awaiting sentencing in that case, he was arrested and charged with battery for attacking his girlfriend. As a result, Taherzadeh is not permitted to own a weapon but was found with a Sig Sauer 229 during the raid.
Based on court documents, we know that Taherzadeh claimed to be a member of the Department of Homeland Security and a former US Army Ranger. We know Shah-Ali had a Pakistani passport with visas to Iran, and a travel history to Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey. Little is known about Taherzadeh's travel history, but by all indications, he appears to be an American who Shah-Ali roped in.