Two males who have been arrested for allegedly posing as federal brokers have been indicted on a handful of counts by a federal grand jury. Arian Taherzadeh and Haider Ali have been indicted on false impersonation of an officer or worker of the U.S. and illegal possession of a big capability ammunition feeding gadget.
Taherzadeh was additionally indicted on a further rely of the second cost for one more ammo gadget.
Taherzadeh, 40, and Ali, 35, have been arrested by FBI brokers earlier in April. The FBI accused the 2 males of impersonating numerous authorities officers, together with members of a number of legislation enforcement companies, since February 2020.
The 2 males are accused of acquiring paraphernalia, handguns and assault rifles utilized by federal legislation enforcement companies and falsely claiming to be members of those companies. The FBI claimed they used their false associations with the U.S. authorities "to ingratiate themselves with members of federal legislation enforcement and the protection group."
Whereas allegedly pretending to be a member of the Division of Homeland Safety, the FBI claims Taherzadeh supplied U.S. Secret Service members and a DHS worker with rent-free flats and items similar to iPhones, a case for storing an assault rifle and surveillance methods.
Secret Service personnel have been put up in a luxurious condominium constructing in Southwest D.C., close to the place the suspects lived, in accordance with U.S. officers. However the personnel have since moved out, posing a problem to investigators in search of to find out if their partitions have been bugged. The FBI has taken custody of all digital supplies and proof associated to this case, U.S. officers stated.
4 Secret Service staff have been suspended after allegedly being duped by Taherzadeh and Ali. Two of the 4 suspended officers are brokers, and two are uniformed division officers.
In an announcement, the Secret Service beforehand stated it's taking this incident "extraordinarily critically," working with federal authorities and conducting its personal overview.
"Though that is an ongoing investigation, we've discovered no proof of any opposed safety impacts or improper entry to delicate info, methods or protected places at the moment," the assertion stated.
Whereas looking the flats, investigators additionally recovered Ali's passport containing three "older" Pakistani visas and two Iranian visas from 2019 and January 2020, prosecutors stated. There was a sign on his Iranian visa that he had entered that nation sooner or later, prosecutors stated, though they didn't specify when.
Ali had been underneath investigation by HSI's Newark workplace and the U.S. Postal Service for fraudulent exercise stemming from an alleged bank card ring scheme, in accordance with two legislation enforcement sources. The standing of that investigation stays unclear.
Different court docket paperwork filed Tuesday allege that, whereas posing as a DHS official, Taherzadeh instructed a witness "to conduct analysis into a person" who "supplied assist to the Division of Protection and Intelligence Neighborhood."
One other witness claims that, regardless of not even having an appointment, Ali was primarily in a position to argue his approach into having the witness fingerprinted at a Metropolitan Police Division of the District of Columbia facility.
A 3rd witness alleges that, following an argument concerning the Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter actions, Taherzadeh advised her and a bunch of pals that if that they had been males and "said their political opinions in his dwelling" he would have shot them, in accordance with the court docket paperwork.
Each Ali and Taherzadeh are to be launched to dwelling confinement pending trial. District of Columbia Justice of the Peace Choose G. Michael Harvey dominated final week that the lads are usually not flight dangers and pose no menace to the group. Nonetheless, that call was made at a time when there was just one cost pending in opposition to each males.
Sophie Reardon, Jordan Freiman and Sara Cooke contributed reporting.