A Washington DC man has pleaded guilty to a years-long scheme of impersonating a Department of Homeland Security agent and giving gifts and rent-free apartments to federal agents.
Four Secret Service agents were put on administrative leave in the bizarre case.
Arian Taherzadeh has agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department and faces up to 48 months in prison when he is sentenced. He has admitted to creating a private law enforcement service called the United States Special Police and used it to pretend to be a federal agent within a string of agencies.
Mr Taherzadeh, 40, and co-defendant Haider Ali, were charged earlier this year with falsely impersonating federal officers and possessing illegal, large-capacity ammunition magazines.
Mr Taherzadeh was also charged with filming individuals, without their consent, engaging in sexual activity. He pleaded guilty to the three charges.
Mr Ali has pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors say that both men, and a third unnamed individual, “ingratiated themselves” with the federal agents by setting them up with rent-free apartments and giving them gifts worth more than $90,000.
Mr Taherzadeh even offered to buy a rifle for an agent who was a member of first lady Jill Biden’s protective detail at the time. The agents involved ran up more than $800,000 in unpaid rent, fees, and parking, according to prosecutors.
The suspects are accused of telling building managers that the US government would be paying the rent and then blamed government bureaucracy and fake “supervisors” for the delay.
Mr Taherzadeh, who claimed he was a former Army Ranger and Air Marshal, is also accused of making up false acts of heroism. Prosecutors say he claimed he took part in the arrest of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, was a Calvin Klein model and that his family was “Middle-Eastern royalty.”
Prosecutors say that he also set up video cameras in his bedroom and filmed women taking part in sexual activity without their consent. He would then show the videos to others.
He is accused of trying to recruit individuals to a fake Homeland Security Investigations force and playing a drinking game in which people were shot with an air rifle.
As part of his plea deal, Mr Taherzadeh has agreed to testify in any trial or grand jury and will appear in court again in November.
