A man who posed as a federal agent and infiltrated Jill Biden‘s Secret Service has pleaded guilty to conspiracy and other charges.
Arian ‘Ari’ Taherzadeh, 40, admitted to creating a private law enforcement service called the United States Special Police and impersonating federal agents to recruit members to his fake investigative team.
He also lavished gifts on Secret Service agents, including one assigned to protect the First Lady, such as rent-free luxury apartments in Washington DC, drones, iPhones and firearms.
Court records show he racked up more than $1 million in debt for unpaid rent from apartment complexes, luxury cars, VIP box seats at Capital One Arena, and a sponsorship deal with the company that owns several professional sports teams.
Taherzadeh pleaded guilty on Monday to conspiracy, as well as unlawful possession of a large-capacity ammunition feeding device and voyeurism. He also agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation.
His next court date will be November 2. A sentencing date has not been set.
Arian ‘Ari’ Taherzadeh, 40, who posed as a federal agent and infiltrated Jill Biden’s Secret Service, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy and other charges
As part of his plea, Taherzadeh conceded that he, his co-defendant Haider Ali, 35, and an unnamed other subject conspired to recruit people to participate in a phony Homeland Security (DHS) task force.
The scheme began in December 2018 and continued through April 2022, according to court records obtained by DailyMail.com.
Taherzadeh created the United States Special Police (USSP) and pretended it was part of a covert federal law enforcement task force. The company was not associated with the US government in any way.
However, Taherzadeh falsely claimed to be 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 – among other things – to recruit others to the USSP.
He and Ali, under the guise of USSP, defrauded three local apartment complexes into providing him with multiple units, parking spots for his alleged law enforcement operations and used a fraudulent affiliation with DHS to ‘ingratiate themselves with members of federal law enforcement.’
The complexes sustained more than $800,000 in losses from unpaid rent, parking, and associated fees, court documents state.
Taherzadeh admitted to creating a law enforcement service called the United States Special Police and impersonating federal agents to recruit members to his fake investigative team
Taherzadeh and his co-defendant Haider Ali, 35, had a fraudulent police garb in their DC apartments
Officials also found law enforcement clothing, paraphernalia, equipment and an identification-making device during their raid
Agents with the FBI, NCIS and USPIS swarmed several floors and units of a luxury apartment building in southeast Washington, D.C. in April 2022
Taherzadeh and Ali were arrested on April 6, prompting the Secret Service to place four agents on leave pending an investigation because they had accepted gifts. One of the agents who was placed on leave was assigned to protect Jill Biden.
The Justice Department said they doled out gifts worth over $90,000.
Taherzadeh began falsely identifying himself as a federal agent to members of the Secret Service in spring 2020. He told two agents he was working in a gang unit and informed another he was part of a covert task force.
He provided three Secret Service employees with gifts, including rent-free apartments, in an effort to ‘ingratiate himself’ with the workers.
According to the plea document, the gifts were intended to deepen his relationship with the agents and further his ability to impersonate himself as a federal law enforcement officer.
Arian Taherzadeh is pictured entering his father’s home in Sterling on April 13, 2022 after the government didn’t file an appeal to have him kept behind bars in a Washington D.C. jail
Officials seized a dynamic entry kit from Penthouse 5 which included a mini-door ram, axe, sledgehammer, Halligan tool, and bolt cutters
Items seized in the investigation of Taherzadeh and Ali included package containing a cigar case with four cigars
Images from the raid of a unit on the 7th floor where Arian Taherzadeh was residing allegedly for free showed agents recovered ‘three current copies of Taherzadeh’s Washington D.C. driver’s license, passport, United States Special Police – Special Investigations Unit business cards, a USSP police badge, and several identification and credit cards’
Haider Sher-Ali poses in a now-deleted image from his Facebook
When the FBI raided properties associated with the men, agents recovered so many weapons, surveillance equipment, hard drives and other evidence that it needed a moving truck to haul it all away.
In one unit agents discovered five fully loaded large-capacity ammunition feeding devices, containing a total of 61 rounds of ammunition.
Officials also found law enforcement clothing, paraphernalia, equipment and an identification-making device during their raid.
Among the seized items were police badges, tactical gear and equipment, police lights, a Glock handgun, surveillance equipment, and unlicensed long gun components including a firearm barrel, weapon stock attachments, foregrips, a magazine cartridge and scope.
Officials also learned Taherzadeh had installed surveillance cameras on the interior and exterior of his apartment in one of the complexes, including in his bedroom.
He used these cameras to record women during sexual activity and then showed the explicit videos to third parties.
Before Taherzadeh began impersonating a federal law enforcement agent, he told people he was a wealthy owner of an internet hosting company.