WASHINGTON — Editor's Note: The video above is from a WUSA9 report that in aired April 2022.
A D.C. man has pleaded guilty to charges stemming from an elaborate scheme involving pretending to be a federal law enforcement officer. The rouse resulted in a public arrest in Southeast's Navy Yard neighborhood in April 2022.
According to the United States Attorney’s Office of the District of Columbia, 40-year-old Arian Taherzadeh pretended to be a federal law enforcement officer for a range of purposes beginning as early as the spring of 2020. Taherzadeh began falsely identifying himself as a Special Agent to employees of the U.S. Secret Service, including securing a host of apartments where he failed to pay rent; promoting his security company and becoming involved in the community of other officers.
Taherzadeh and a co-defendant, 36-year-old Haider Ali who is also from D.C., were both arrested on April 6, 2022. Ali has pleaded not guilty to charges filed against him in an indictment.
Taherzadeh pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, "to a superseding information charging him with a federal conspiracy offense and two District of Columbia offenses: unlawful possession of a large-capacity ammunition feeding device and voyeurism," officials said.
The Attorney's Office says a sentencing date has not yet been set, however, he is set to appear Nov. 2 for a status hearing. As part of his plea agreement, the office confirmed that Taherzadeh has agreed to cooperate with the government’s investigation.
Officials say that, according to plea documents, Taherzadeh created a business called United States Special Police LLC (USSP), which was described as private law enforcement, investigative, and protective service based in the District.
"The company was not associated in any way with the United States government or the District of Columbia," the office said. "As the scheme unfolded between December 2018 and April 2022, Taherzadeh falsely claimed to be, among other things, a Special Agent with the Department of Homeland Security, a member of a multi-jurisdictional federal task force, a former United States Air Marshal and a former Army Ranger."
The office went on to detail that Taherzadeh used the false claims to recruit others to USSP, advertising it as part of a covert federal law enforcement task force. He also defrauded owners of three apartment complexes by getting them to provide him with multiple apartments and parking spaces for what he said were law enforcement operations. These apartment buildings sustained more than $800,000 in losses from unpaid rent, parking and associated fees, the office said.
In one of the apartments, Taherzadeh kept an unlicensed gun with five fully loaded large-capacity ammunition feeding devices, containing a total of 61 rounds of ammunition, according to the office.
Officials also shared that Taherzadeh and others sported law enforcement clothing, paraphernalia, equipment and an ID-making device; which included a wide range of items from police patches, lights and badges to a Sig Sauer P229 firearm, a Glock 19 9mm handgun and large quantities of ammunition,
Officials went on to add that he gave multiple gifts to Secret Service employees, including a generator, drone and a doomsday/survival backpack to rent-free apartments for about a year that were estimated to be worth as much as $48,240.
According to the plea documents, the office said, Taherzadeh gave lavish gifts in order to deepen his relationship with Secret Service employees to better pull off his impersonation scheme.
The office also detailed Taherzadeh's practice of installing surveillance cameras outside and inside his apartment bedroom in one of the complexes, where officials say he used cameras to record women engaged in sexual activity. Taherzadeh then showed these explicit videos to third parties, according to the office.