LONDON — A U.S. fugitive known as Nicholas Rossi, who is accused of faking his own death to avoid a rape charge in Utah, has been extradited to the United States, British media reported Friday.
Rossi, 36, whose legal name is Nicholas Alahverdian, is charged with sexually assaulting a former girlfriend in Orem, Utah, in 2008, according to the Utah County prosecutor’s office. He also faces multiple complaints against him in Rhode Island for alleged domestic violence.
In response to an inquiry from The Associated Press about reports that Rossi had been returned to the U.S., Police Scotland would only confirm it assisted other law enforcement agencies to extradite a 36-year-old man. It was not immediately clear when Rossi left Scotland or where he was destined.
McFadyen dismissed his claims of mistaken identity as “implausible” and “fanciful.” The judge said Rossi presented unreliable evidence and he wasn’t “prepared to accept any statement of fact made by him unless it was independently supported.”
Rossi lost an appeal in December.
Four years ago, he told media in Rhode Island that he had late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma and had weeks to live. An obituary published online claimed he died Feb. 29, 2020.
About a year later, Rhode Island state police, Alahverdian’s former lawyer and his former foster family, questioned whether he was dead.
Authorities in Rhode Island have said Alahverdian is wanted there for failing to register as a sex offender, though his former lawyer there, Jeffrey Pine, told the AP earlier this year that the charge was dropped when he left the state. The FBI has said he also faces fraud charges in Ohio, where he was convicted of sex-related charges in 2008.
Police in England said they also were investigating and seeking to interview Rossi in connection with an older rape allegation made in April 2022 in the city of Chelmsford.
