More than happy to give it look. We might even consider running it on our blog, although I cannot speak for the site's administrators (I'm just a lowly researcher).
Just an idea, and it would involve an awful lot of work, but I feel it may be worthwhile presenting your case on Youtube. With so much information to convey, a multimedia format would have its advantages, plus you can reach a far wider audience. Also, I think the general public would be more empathetic hearing from (or seeing) a real person, witnessing the emotional trauma that this has caused.
There are many people saying many false things about my husband. But the beauty of death is that Nick does not have to hear gossip. He may be drinking with Frank or discussing the Cuban Missile Crisis with President Kennedy.
Or death may be complete silence and absence of thought or feeling.
Either way Nick is not bothered.
Also, someone claiming to be Mrs. Alahverdian has joined reddit. (link)
I did. It took 4 hours and then I had to wait for it to be visible on youtube because they had to verify the copyright license with Mr Dylan's office but then I found a way around it by uploading it to vimeo though the next day it was approved on youtube anyway. It was one of Nick's choices.
Subject: Re: Threats of violence, physical property damage, Request for Office Action
This is very urgent. In this entire situation which has only worsened in the past 48-72 hours, my family has been uprooted from our homes, we have had two incidents of property damage at two of our family properties and our lives have been threatened by your editors and administrators, all because of the users on your website who are financially gaining from keeping my non-notable, deceased husband's article on wikipedia when the article has already been deleted many times before. I am asking for a reply by the end of business since we have waited and waited and waited with ABSOLUTELY ZERO reply from any of you while my family is threatened and hurt and an article about my husband on your website is the cause.
My lawyer Adam Smith and I have tried to contact the Wikipedia office about this ongoing emergency affecting me and my family. Can someone please reply to this important correspondence? I have been threatened and my family has been threatened, and my late husband's Wikipedia article is still being called a 'hoax' and its corresponding talkpage is now a forum full of gossip and hearsay. Why are we being ignored? Is there a phone number where we can reach you? Do you even care about accuracy? Or the families that are being hurt? Or that we had to pay money for people to stop making false edits to my husband's articl?
I was also made aware that a person confessed to manipulating and re-creating my husband's article for payment with other people who worked for a "wikipedia editing company": https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =998137849 see "A confession and an apology"
Is it a coincidence that the same person that charges for editing/creating Wikipedia articles and still does on his own website and freelancing websites like Fiverr and freelancer.com Gregory Kohs has a stake in wikipediocracy and is a frequent forum contributor/site owner? I am quite sure that he was part of the group that masterminded and demanded money to stop editing my husband's article and to stop creating it, he probably works both ways.
The same concept with those reputation companies that created bad webpages with negative content and then the victims paid those same people money to have the articles removed. Now Gregory Kohs and these other people are doing it on wikipedia and they did it with my husband, threatening that if we don't pay they will release a deepfake video that will make it appear like he is alive.
But we will never find them or connect them they claim, or prove it was them. Unfortunately they are right because as someone who was told that they were going to "carve" me up and leave me to rot in a river I do not think confronting these people will be going on my to-do list.
Another person on a noticeboard for administrators said "This is such a curious case over the years, with some sockpuppets puffing up the article with insignificant praise & detail and other sockpuppet camps trying to get the article deleted. Plus the Wikipediocracy investigative articles that they decide to yank off their website for potentially legal issues. All about an individual who is presumed deceased for nearly a year. I wish some reliable media outfit would look into this" at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia ... lahverdian
The article has previously been deleted many times. He is not a public figure. He is not notable. He does not meet your guidelines for notability or for an article. The people that are creating and editing the article are doing it for their own financial gain. You are feeding right into their plan because the more this baseless gossip is circulated without people knowing that we were blackmailed and extorted, and that the sockpuppets and user accounts were not in control of my husband or anyone connected with him, this gossip will not stop. And my family and I have aleady been threatened to the point that if we tell the story of how this happened and it gets out, we risk getting hurt or financially exploited again. These people were making edits to my husband's article at the encouragement and direction of the same people we paid to stop this and the wikipediocracy forum shows where they were telling people where to write what but they made the page private. I do have a pdf that I saved of that forum though to prove that the people that hated my husband were writing lies on the article and no admin or anyone was doing anything.
The police are doing nothing. Wikipedia is doing nothing. No one is reviewing our concerns or even replying to my emails. This is a very serious issue, and it has already cost us significant amounts of money to people who are editing your website and are being paid to edit his article.
Why can't you at least tell us to "go away" so we know that there will not be any action taken?
My husband was a private citizen. He had no interest in wikipedia. The articles from Wikipediocracy were false and disgusting and the nameless, faceless editors there and at wikipedia, or some of them, came together to provoke violence on me and my family until we met their demands. Yes we are being left alone now but why are you letting this continue? You are allowing our family to be blackmailed and the content of an article that shouldn't even exist because of multiple deletions due to no notability be edited to the opinion of editors and admins that may or may not be involved in extorting and blackmailing me and my family. You are also allowing, against your self-imposed site rules, to suggest that news media look into my husband's page or take an activist stance while you still call him a hoax at the top of his page. Please read and reply to Adam's email.
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
On Tuesday, January 5, 2020, Adam Smith wrote:
> Dear Ms. Maher and Ms. Keton,
>
> This is a situation of the greatest importance involving physical threats, extortion, terrorizing a family after the death of a loved one, and causing an entire family of nine to have around the clock security while they live in a hotel until they deem it is safe to either return home or choose to move house. This emergency must be dealt with today. I am including a Request for Office Action under your policy of "Office Actions" or "G9" pursuant to your Terms of Use as a result of privacy violations, copyright infringement, and systematic harassment.
>
> My clients, the widow of Nicholas Alahverdian (who passed away in February 2020), her two children, and the rest of her family, have been threatened, bullied, and extorted on and through Wikipedia, via telephone, on email, and in person by users (and allegedly administrators and editors of your website). None of them have a Wikipedia account. Mrs. Alahverdian (included as a recipient of this email) has had her life and the lives of her children, sisters, brothers, and family threatened in the worst way possible. Two family homes have sustained damage to their exteriors. How the identity or location of Mrs. Alahverdian or her parents were obtained is unknown. A six figure sum has been paid to stop the harassment taking place on and off of the Internet.
>
> The criminals that have inflicted this physical, emotional, and psychological damage have claimed and proved their status as "Wikipedia editors and administrators" through publication of false and disparaging material on Wikipedia and the unrelated Wikipediocracy website with further details of their activities and threats below. We are, of course, unable to verify the seniority of any of these individuals, but Mrs. Alahverdian and I are not persuaded in the least that any officer of the Wikimedia Foundation or the Foundation itself is behind this activity. However, we have not received replies to our emails informing you and your colleagues of this frightening and criminal behavior.
>
> We have remained in constant contact with law enforcement as this situation has developed and their investigation is ongoing. We have taken every precaution and Mrs. Alahverdian and her family have received around the clock security at a hotel far from their home to eliminate any risk caused by the situations that I will now describe.
>
> I am afraid though that your website and a small minority of its users, administrators, and editors are being used to cause a great crime and harm a family less than a year after they lost their husband and father. Mrs. Alahverdian understands that Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation are not responsible for the outrageous, violent, and dangerous behavior from your users and she and her family have one purpose: to solve the problem that was caused by a loophole which allowed the re-creation of an article about Mr. Alahverdian (when the page was 'salted', protected, and deleted). When users who later described it as 'hacking' circumvented the un-deletion process and re-created the article about Mr. Alahverdian in November 2019, no one knew that just over a year later this page would be used to let anonymous racketeering extortioners have control over the improperly reborn article when Mr. Alahverdian was deemed not to be an "individual sufficiently notable to have a standalone article on Wikipedia." Among other atrocities, editors and administrators allow the article to be labeled a 'hoax', his article and talk page turned into an attack page, and the intellectual property of The Nicholas Alahverdian Trust is hosted on Wikipedia/Wikimedia without permission.
>
> I am fairly certain that after what this family has experienced based on the abuse and misuse of your platform, and after their first Christmas without their husband and father who they loved so much, you will agree that this incident is a priority and must be rectified within a reasonable amount of time to avoid further abuse and trauma.
>
> For example even after Mrs. Alahverdian and her father paid this rogue group of users from Wikipedia and Wikipediocracy USD$75,000.00 in Bitcoin, they sent an email which said:
>
> "We take sharp sword to carve your ugly face in pieces than snap your spine,, leave you to rot in river. this is very simple pay to stop drama or wiki editors and admins keep calling nicky (Mr. Alahverdian) a hoax,,, look at his article an talk page, it won't stop just like i won't stop laughing. we make deal like trump! PAY US to not die and stop defame and hoax your husband. [...] is ignore us worth your life or children grow up with no ma or daddy?" (sic)
>
> As you can see, this is an emergency and we have done our part to stop it, but I am afraid that we need your help.
>
> Throughout the past month since mid-December, building up to a climax of the past 48 hours, Mrs. Alahverdian, her father and I have received emails, telephone calls, 50 boxes of pizza at the family door with an unpaid bill, text messages from non-working numbers with threats, pornographic images, and multiple other forms of harassment that have been from persons claiming to be high-level Wikipedia and/or Wikimedia Foundation administrators and editors, demanding a large sum of money in exchange for not making false representations on her late husband's Wikipedia article. This is by far the worst case of harassment, stalking, blackmail, and extortion that I have ever seen in my 28 years practicing law. The events experienced by Mrs. Alahverdian and her extended family will have cataclysmic consequences on this family that I have served for over 15 years and can attest that they are some of the kindest people you will ever meet. But for some reason, a member of their family, recently deceased, was chosen to be targeted. And now this family is a shadow of itself. The threats have been constant, the fear instilled with such negligence. Stalked, harassed, and threatened, it has been non-stop. Specifically, in one email the sender referred to two intersecting pieces of red tape forming an "X" that was found on the front door of her home last week. The author(s) of the email stated:
>
>
"Didn't you have red tape in X shape on your main door other day? Yes, it was us."
>
> This was done in an attempt to prove to Mrs. Alahverdian that these persons, unknown to her or her family, know where she resides and are willing to resort to acts of stalking. We need your help to stop this damage. The police and the security team have done and are doing as much as they can but they are not able to stop harassment, threats, extortion, and danger originating from your website.
>
> These persons, hereinafter referred to as "Wiki users" since they described themselves interchangeably as editors and administrators of Wikipedia and another website called Wikipediocracy unrelated to your site, have made numerous untraceable phone calls, sent two violent and demanding emails, and have made incredibly frightening claims over the past three weeks with the past 48 hours being the worst. Mrs. Alahverdian was warned to not report the conduct to the police, or to Wikipedia, or to Wikipediocracy, because they were in fact, or had connections to, the police, the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikipedia, and Wikipediocracy. The Wiki users averred that Jimmy Wales was also behind these misdeeds. Mrs. Alahverdian, for the record, does not believe for a second that this matter has been caused by any officers of the Wikimedia Foundation, especially Mr. Wales.
>
> Two digital intellectual properties of Mrs. Alahverdian's nongovernmental organization to honor her husband, The Nicholas Alahverdian Trust, have been hacked, including the www.nicholasalahverdian.com website along with its Twitter account, although no content has been modified or deleted.
>
> She first received demands over the phone to leave vast sums of cash in places near her home if she wished the harassment to cease. In accordance with my advice, she and her father refused, yet other threats and ultimatums were issued. She was told by the Wiki users that the Wikipediocracy website would would be releasing multiple articles about her late husband and that they had managed to connect the dots to falsely allege that he created and re-created autobiographical Wikipedia articles, that he did not attend Harvard University, and multiple other fabrications.
>
> The articles were later published as promised, but the website host ordered the Wiki users, who averred to edit both Wikipedia and Wikipediocracy and had complete control over content whether it was true or not, to delete the articles as they violated their Terms of Service.
>
> When this happened in late December the Wiki users began to add false information to Mr. Alahverdian's Wikipedia article and also unjustifiably added a 'hoax' label, implying that Mr. Alahverdian was not dead or had lied about some or all of his life. The 'hoax' label was placed on the Wikipedia article without explanation or instruction on how to clarify any missing information. The Wiki users then phoned Mrs. Alahverdian and her father who were informed that they would be phoning reporters to "tip" the story that Mr. Alahverdian was a 'hoax' and this included his death as they had not received any funds as requested. Their stated goal was to have the Wikipedia article about Mr. Alahverdian edited so that it contained negative news stories until the Wiki users were paid the sum of money which they demanded. Indeed, several days later two reporters from Mr. Alahverdian's former home of Rhode Island emailed Mrs. Alahverdian to ask if there was any truth to the suggestion that his death was a hoax, which, it goes without saying, there was not.
>
> When I advised Mrs. Alahverdian and her father to not pay the sum of money demanded, the Wiki users indicated that they would begin to use voice-altering technology, using snippets of Mr. Alahverdian's voice to sound like him, or manipulate existing voice recordings, to phone government employees in Rhode Island and family members to alarm them by playing the recordings that would appear as if Mr. Alahverdian's recorded voice was trying to have a conversation with the person on the other end of the phone. We were unsure of what they were trying to accomplish by falsely alleging that Mr. Alahverdian's death from non-Hodgkin Lymphoma was untrue with the exception that the Wiki users would have a negative citation to add to his Wikipedia article, but they still had no such luck with any publications although we did have to explain to several of Mr. Alahverdian's friends and relatives that these phone calls were fake and there was an attempt to defraud the family.
>
> The Wiki users were able to obtain many of the files necessary by obtaining or decoding the password to Mrs. Alahverdian's iCloud and Flickr accounts among other online services.
>
> During their rambling phone calls where they threatened to publish false news stories on his Wikipedia article, the Wiki users also admitted to obtaining the passwords and hacking into Wikipedia editor accounts that they claimed purportedly belonged to Mr. Alahverdian with the goal of somehow proving that Mr. Alahverdian was alive because he was making edits to Wikipedia articles about his interests including Rhode Island politics and politics in general.
>
> The rambling emails from the Wiki users threatened to post nude photos from Mrs. Alahverdian's laptop which were allegedly surreptitiously recorded while she was in a state of undress, preparing to bathe, according to the Wiki users. The Wiki users also sent links to demonstrate that someone with an astute knowledge of Rhode Island politics and a fierce devotion to protecting the Wikipedia article of Mr. Alahverdian was hard at work. Not just one account, but many. Each account name involved in the overzealous editing was listed at a page dedicated to what must be an internal term: 'sockpuppets'. The Wiki users explained that the longer we waited to pay them, the more they would work to include defamatory material on Mr. Alahverdian's article and compel other users of the Wikipedia website to believe that Mrs. Alahverdian or her friends and/or family were spending hours upon hours making edits to Wikipedia articles. This was unsettling because Mrs. Alahverdian and her family do not edit Wikipedia nor do they know how, as is the case with myself and I have had to take a crash course over the weekend and today to prepare this email.
>
> The Wiki users also claimed that they had paid senior Wikipedia administrators and editors to allow them to make edits without intervention, starting with the 'hoax' article label, that would place Mr. Alahverdian in a false light, claiming that he did not work for the Rhode Island government at age 14, started a lobbying firm at 15, and that he did not attend Harvard as a full-time student, all claims which can be verified by passing mentions in news articles.
>
> The Wiki users went out of their way to call Mr. Alahverdian a fraud and a hoax on Wikipedia and during the forced phone calls where we were subjected to their philosophies and skewed world views, proclaiming that the world would also agree with their claims. On another evening during an attempt via telephone call to ease the situation or come to some sort of agreement, we were advised by several laughing young men to "listen up" and we heard a voice that sounded like Mr. Alahverdian's but used vulgar language and talked about inappropriate personal preferences. They appeared to manipulate his voice and were playing for his wife and her family. It was sickening. The Wiki users said they felt bad and were ready to give up, but wanted us to watch a video about why they disliked him. Not wanting his widow to become more upset than she already was, her father and I went into a different room, unbeknownst to the Wiki users. We were then sent a link in an SMS text message to a website with a video where Mr. Alahverdian's face was photo shopped onto a shooting victim as the body bounced to and fro and then faded into a another photo shopped video where his head was again photo shopped onto a man who was having illicit relations with a horse. The Wiki users feigned concern for how we would cope if those videos were uploaded to the internet, and they ended the call for the evening only for us to look over our shoulders and see Mrs. Alahverdian weeping from seeing what we had tried to conceal for her emotional state of mind.
>
> Since these events unpredictably started in mid-December, with demands for large sums of cash or bitcoin and lies and untruths being added to Mr. Alahverdian's Wikipedia article, along with the threats, blackmail, extortion, and countless other wrongs, we had been in constant contact with law enforcement. Because these individuals could not be tracked with even the most sophisticated methods, we had decided that because the Wiki users showed no signs of ceasing their deranged behavior, we would offer a considerable amount of the sum they were demanding, and attempt to meet their expectation by sending it in the form of Bitcoin. However, acquiring the equivalent of USD$100,000.00 in Bitcoin by their deadline proved futile. The maximum we could obtain was $75,000.00 and we sent it according to their instructions.
>
> The next day, we heard from the Wiki users again. A previously unused and unheard argument was then brought to the surface when they said that Mr. Alahverdian had been paying the Wiki users to "protect" his article. In other words, they were saying that while he was alive, Mr. Alahverdian paid the Wiki users 'protection money' to avoid any unfavorable content or negative articles being published which would then be included on his Wikipedia article since they had re-created the article in November 2019 with an account that they later claimed was his and something he actively used but which they had later hacked and seized, in addition to other accounts. Mrs. Alahverdian was around her husband nearly every moment of the last years and months of his life and his distaste for any Wikipedia article about himself was evident. Regardless of the truth, the Wiki users claimed that they had enough people behind them to make a 'valid' claim that the accounts belonged to Mr. Alahverdian, he edited his own Wikipedia article and those about Rhode Island politics and history, and that the list of 'sock puppet' authors would verify that he or someone close to him was obsessed with his personal image on Wikipedia. Mrs. Alahverdian states that her husband did not wish to have a Wikipedia article about himself, and he reached out to several colleagues who successfully assisted him with removing any content about him from Wikipedia on multiple occasions. Unfortunately, there were always Wiki users with their own ideas who re-created the articles after deletion, uploaded copyrighted photos (and other photos that they claimed were Mr. Alahverdian but were of a completely different person), and created their own version of Mr. Alahverdian's life.
>
> The Wiki users, however, claimed he paid them generously to 'protect the article' but they 'ran out of his money' which was their justification for needing Mrs. Alahverdian's money now in exchange for further protection of the article. Making any type of significant payment would have been virtually impossible without Mrs. Alahverdian knowing since her husband's condition was rapidly deteriorating and in November 2019 he was unable to even use the toilet on his own. The idea of making any bank transfers or payments without the help and knowledge of his wife was outlandish because of the rapid progression of his illness, and Mrs. Alahverdian's financial records confirm this.
>
> After detailing that untrue aspect they once again threatened to make Mr. Alahverdian look like someone editing from the dead, claiming:
>
> "We created the wiki account and article on Nicky (Mr. Alahverdian) again! and now look, every call you a hoax because WE are in control. We create article demand payment. You sent only half so we did not edit but now we ran out of your money. Then he's dead. Now we need our money or he look like he still alive with puppet! All accounts to make it look like little NIkcy is still live and defending his shit self UNTIL YOU FUCKING PAY. We upload your picture to and that fake one deleted!" (sic)
>
> The Wiki users then claim they are paying the Wikimedia Foundation, 'bureaucrats', editors, and that no one with the exception of them and their colleagues can edit because of the blue 'E' with the padlock on the page. They reiterate that they hacked accounts which focused on Rhode Island and politics to make it look like Mr. Alahverdian was alive and editing these articles. They also reiterate that the false statements they knowingly made on Wikipedia will always be there when they need them because of websites that archive webpages such as archive.org.
>
> The Wiki users then gave us a number of USD$150,000.00 in total that it would take to go away, and they claimed they would remove the articles and the photos from Wikipedia even though there is no reason for the article to be there since it has been removed several times already, and no permission was granted to use any of the three photos of Mr. Alahverdian on Wikipedia or Wikimedia commons, which are the intellectual property of The Nicholas Alahverdian Trust.
>
> First the Wiki users demanded that we pay the funds in Bitcoin again. They also promised to permanently remove all of the Wikipediocracy articles, that they would "call all of their editors and tell them to stop" and that there would be no more hacking.
>
> Then they claimed in the email that if we did not pay the Bitcoins by their deadline we would continue to be harassed and Mr. Alahverdian would be 'alive' and a 'fraud' and a 'hoax.' They continued:
>
> "If we dont get bitcoins you will continue to be harass and your husband will be 'alive' and every body, journalists, everyone, will call you liar and him a fraud. Video deepfake will upload on nicholasalahverdian.com website and twitter, Wikipedia harassment will continue. Reporters will be making your call." (sic)
>
> And then another threat:
>
> "If you forward this email, go to the police etc we will know (obviously) and immediately release deepfake video and increase malware, increase wiki edits from our admins and editors, and creation of sockpuppets to make your hubby 'look live' have our team contact reporters and news!"
>
> And then they sent as attachments two screenshots which proved they had successfully hacked into nicholasalahverdian.com and twitter.com/nalahverdian.
>
> In the final email received in this Titanic of incidents, and hopefully our last communication from them, they sent the threat about 'carving' Mrs. Alahverdian, they said they would lower the amount to the total of USD$125,000 for "protection" and if the payment was not made, they would "continue wiki assault on yr hubby, upload porn of you,, upload deepfake video,, as they are us and we are wiki." (sic)
>
> After a year that has been difficult for everyone, most especially for Mrs. Alahverdian, her family, and her lovely two children, the eerie feeling that permeates every space is unfamiliar. All of this, all of these lies, because of money.
>
> If the payment was not made on time, the consequences were outlined:
>
> "Do not try to run we will find you .. and your hubby wiki article will get worse and worse with more fakes. ha he is 1 of 12 hoax article in all million of wiki. think that happen chance? GO to police, go to daddy, go to wiki, we will know and you will be sushi - make payment and hubby article go away OR we DO NOT JOKE and deepfake video of your shit husband will be uploaded, Worldwide News. then people on wiki will think your own death hoax! he is dead but with magic comes back TO LIFE in our deepfake (video)." (sic)
>
> The Wiki users go on:
>
> "When we paid to have created Wiki nicky article last year we know how to get money from your hubby [...] we kept good stuff in , now hes dead so it your duty BITCH. do it now[.] the article is there and will always be. but it will be good or bad. do you want world to have the "fake news" on his article to? and do not try to contact wiki offices as said jimmy wales is our OG and behind this control. no one can edit or defend your shit cunt hubby or even delete article because WE ARE WIKI employees."
>
> And they continue to act as if Mrs. Alahverdian is a burden:
>
> "This will be only money to pay, no more as i am TIRED and SICK of your risk. So worthless woman go to police go to wiki do anything against our instruct, and knifes will sharpen. you have our demand now act according. that's all do not waste my personal time, going to get high and make more wiki demands BITCH." (sic)
>
> All of the payments are made. We have cooperated with these beasts from a nightmare. The family is taking time to heal and be together. However, since we have met their demands, it is time to deal with the fallout. The article about the late Mr. Alahverdian should have never been re-posted or re-created. If anyone discovers that this money has been paid to stop the threats and harassment, it will be a trojan horse for other bad apples that want a similar result.
>
> Mr. Alahverdian was not a notable person according to your guidelines. And he certainly was not a hoax. He was somewhere in the middle, quietly advocating for change where he saw room for improvement. In his life, the legislation he advocated for never progressed far. But he still quietly labored away hoping that one day something might click with people. He was never an elected official. He was never a famous athlete. He loved his wife and his family. He enjoyed painting. And he was a fantastic cook. For one family, he will always be theirs. He will always be their guardian angel who was taken too soon.
>
> But please, the events leading up to the past 48 hours have made the family beyond scared, especially because the police don't have any leads yet. The family has a reasonable expectation of privacy and solitude.
>
> All it will take is one person, one bad actor. Just one person from that group. To demand something more, to demand something unattainable, to demand from a family who has already lost so much this year and is now going to have to move house, have 24/7 security for the foreseeable future, and still process the grief of losing a husband and a father only for him to be remembered in this way less than a year before the first anniversary of his death.
>
> So we ask you, with respect, and gratitude, and kindness, that you delete the articles about Mr. Alahverdian that were already deleted at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Alahverdian and https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Alahverdian and delete our intellectual property which was not uploaded with any permission whatsoever or by anyone from The Nicholas Alahverdian Trust but was uploaded by a completely unaffiliated individual or group with an eye to earn money through deception and fraud and pain and hurt. .
>
> The family is shaken and struck to the bone with fear. But removing the ability of people to act against your Terms of Service and to turn Wikipedia into a hate machine that they can use for their own purposes is one thing you can do to help this family heal.
>
> The pages need to be "speedy deleted" because they were re-created after being "salted and deleted." Not being experienced or versed in the ways of Wikipedia, I am describing this in the best way I can, and am using the previous delete nomination as a template, on behalf of a family who just want to get their life back to normal, free of threats, free of malice, and back to remembering a father and husband, a son in law and brother in law, a friend, that they loved.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Adam Smith, Esq.
>
++++++++++ quote unquote legal stuff
> What follows is my request and explanation for what your company calls an "Office Action" asking for deletion of the article:
>
> REQUEST FOR OFFICE ACTION
>
> I. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND
>
> Because of the harassment and abuse that the family has suffered as a result of the presence of this inappropriately re-created page, this has also amounted to an attack page with an even worse talk page where there is gossip, lies, and other inappropriate commentary which is subject to speedy deletion and should be blanked as courtesy.
>
> According to this Article for Deletion a decision was made to delete and salt the (misspelled Nicholas without the 'h' that someone created in bad faith) page in question. The page has magically reappeared here at yet another page that was previously deleted and salted (see below). As in the previous articles all of the contributors are either sockpuppets or SPAs. This re-creation of a deleted and salted page of Nicholas Alahverdian seems to have occurred when an editor transferred the creation of another intentionally misspelled page ending with the Roman numeral ‘I’ and transferring it to the original deleted and salted page without waiting to re-create it until a consensus was demonstrated in support of re-creation.
>
> Therefore, the present articles at the English and Simple Wikipedias should be speedy deleted (which I can not nominate due to not being a user) under G4 especially since the most current and most recently edited version of the article is substantially identical to the deleted version (save the mention of the Mr. Alahverdian’s death). Also the content was not undeleted via a deletion review or was only deleted via proposed deletion (including deletion discussions closed as "soft delete") or speedy deletion (the only exceptions for a G4 waiver). On top of that, the articles for Mr. Alahverdian falls under WP:BLP1E, lacks individual notability, and has many BLP violations, including a hoax label on top for no apparent reason or explanation. Coverage is primarily based in local media and therefore may fail depth of coverage and is (with few exceptions) definitely not persistent. Google News searches return 4 results with no significant coverage. Other results indicate significant decrease in coverage from 2015 until the Mr. Alahverdian’s death in February 2020. The article is a re-creation under a deliberately misspelled title most recently created in November 2019 and previously created and deleted multiple times with multiple spellings, including on August 18, 2013, which was later re-created, G4’d and salted on August 29, 2013 with a reinforcement of the salting on February 13, 2015. Under another spelling, the creation, deletion and salting happened in February 2015. Yet another attempt was also salted.
>
> II. ATTACK PAGE
>
> As you know, Wikipedia defines an attack page as "a page in any namespace that exists primary to disparage or threaten its subject; or biographical material which entirely negative in tone and unsourced." Essentially, the page for Mr. Alahverdian that was re-created by circumventing the usual route by which pages would become undeleted through request or petition, was secretly re-created for the sole purpose of attacking Mr. Alahverdian and even extorting funds from his family and exists to threaten and disparage his family, even call him a hoax without a justification or explanation. If the attack page remains in place this will just produce another opportunity for an equivalent or worse incident to occur.
>
> It should also be noted that after these recent traumatic events, the family have a right to privacy without 'scandal mongering' or promoting things 'heard through the grapevine' or gossiping.
>
> III. NOTABILITY
>
> The central claim for notability for Mr. Alahverdian is his court case against a state social services department and legislation drafted based on the allegations in the case with the occasional news story. The court case was the subject of another Article for Deletion on August 18, 2013 resulting in delete. Many years later the case and/or the legislation is not mentioned on the department’s Wikipedia article, its own history of alleged abuse and proved deaths deleted from the article, and that only strengthens the argument that the threshold for Mr. Alahverdian's individual notability has not been met. The substantive news coverage of Mr. Alahverdian does not go beyond social services advocacy, and does not go beyond that context, and, in proportion, Mr. Alahverdian is not of importance to the overall topic.
>
> IV. SOURCES
>
> The individual sources on the article prove the lack of independent notability, depth, and persistence of Mr. Alahverdian, who could be considered by Wikipedia definition a 'low profile individual':
>
> 1,2,3,4,9,10,11,24 – relate to illness and death of Mr. Alahverdian, in itself not sufficient for individual notability and no mention of anything to cross the line of WP:BLP1E
>
> 5,6 7,8,12,13,14,15,16,25 - local coverage rehashing or retelling reasons for or events in his court case or legislation (that was directly prompted by the same court case) which do not grant individual notability
>
> 17,18,19,20,22,23 – mention in passing regarding court case or associated legislation. Proving the fact, but not his individual notability
>
> 21 – op-ed written by subject about same exact legislation and court case; an op-ed does not give rise to individual notability
>
> V. INDIVIDUAL NOTABILITY
>
> Therefore, the article likely falls under WP:BLP1E and lacks individual notability. Coverage is exclusively in local media with no exceptions except his death which was put out from a local AP wire, and therefore fails depth of coverage and is (with one or two exceptions) not persistent. News coverage from 2015 is non-existent except for the mention of his death and a reintroduction of the same legislation from previous years in the 2020 session, neither of which proves individual notability. Even if we put aside everything else Wikipedia editors are still guided by the policy that “Being in the news does not in itself mean that someone should be the subject of a Wikipedia article.” The principles for BLP1E that the “person otherwise remains, and is likely to remain, a low-profile individual” and “the event is not significant or the individual's role was either not substantial or not well documented” also apply. This is not to say that Mr. Alahverdian was not passionate about reform of social services, he simply does not meet the criteria for a standalone Wikipedia article as has been determined four or five times before.
>
> VI. CONCLUSION
>
> It must be noted that the page was re-created after being deleted and salted without going through the proper channels as it was not re-created with a consensus that demonstrated a support of re-creation. Each incarnation of the page was created by a banned user or a sockpuppet of the banned user in violation of G5. This may have been done by those who later targeted Mr. Alahverdian's family and caused significant disruption and chaos to their daily lives, intentionally inflicting emotional distress through their unwanted and uninvited harassment. The page has become an attack page labeling the late Mr. Alahverdian a 'hoax' with no explanation or justification. It is without question that this article should be speedy deleted for the reasons outlined above and other reasons which this Request may not include as I am unfamiliar with each and every Wikipedia policy that would grant such a Request. Therefore, in conclusion, because of the multiple occasions of circumvention of deletions, saltings, G4s, and the lack of individual notability, as well as the fraud, blackmail, extortion, and violence directed at Mr. Alahverdian's family, we request an office action for speedy deletion and 'courtesy blanking.'
Reprise
Dear [Wikipediocracy staff -edited by Smiley]
I hope that each of you had a wonderful holiday season.
I feel that it is important for us to reach closure because it has been brought to my attention that it is being alleged that the only reason that the Wikipediocracy posts have been deleted is because I "sent threats to your site host." We both know that we reached a resolution and that I offered to speak to you on multiple occasions to explain my personal distaste for the Wikipedia Foundation's lack of respect and failure to honor my wishes. I have offered to make a donation to your website because I have seen the personal damage that this website can do to people. We both understand that wikipedia is not fit for its stated purpose.
I am in the middle of contacting the Wikipedia Foundation and we are exchanging emails about how my husband's article can be deleted which they appear to be willing to do as a result of the years of my husband's strong opposition that included demand letters and our lawyers talking to theirs about not being included on their website in any way, including in articles or posts or photographs taken from our websites or accounts on Flickr or other websites and uploading our intellectual property (photos that were taken by employees, agents, or freelancers of The Nicholas Alahverdian Trust).
This belief that he edited his own Wikipedia article is not true. As I told you, we have emails going back years explaining that these accounts and edits were using my husband's name without permission and for their own purposes. They involve requests for deletion of articles, photos that were stolen from flickr or Nicholas' website or elsewhere, requests that user pages or talk pages claiming to be Nicholas be deleted as they were false, and multiple other emails. Nicholas said unequivocally that he did not want a wikipedia article. As he said whenever this subject came up "I am not an astronaut or a politician. Why do I deserve an encyclopedia article." He did not want one. But there were people who thought they knew better and did whatever they want against our wishes.
We would have former foster kids or foster parents email or call us asking to interview Nicholas or ask us for lists of links that they could use to create the article. Some people were so obsessive and I was scared. The last time the article was created in 2019 Nicholas' lawyer sent a cease and desist demand, but it was ignored. This is why I told all of you that I agree with your mission and am willing to help your website in any way that I can. Financially. Logistically. Volunteering. Because Wikipedia can do anything without being checked or overseen and that is a very scary thing. They can write an article about anything even if the subject or topic was of very little importance and not worthy of an encyclopedia article. My husband made that point to the Wikipedia lawyers several times but they replied with form emails explaining that these were issues for the wikipedia community. He was refused his right to privacy and that hurt him because he did not want any of his fight for reforming the foster care system to be about him. He wanted it to be about getting meaningful legislation passed.
Instead, people stole his identity online and offline. They used his name on wikipedia and off to give strength to their own agendas. They added fake photos of him, they created fake facebook profiles, twitter accounts, and this was because they felt he "was not doing enough."
There were people, mainly mothers who had their parental rights terminated, who would stand at protests with signs comparing the Department for Children and Families to Nazi Germany. This crossed the line. While he felt bad for the mothers for losing their children, he respectfully asked that they not hold signs of that language complete with swastikas and images of Hitler next to state officials. Unfortunately these requests were considered insults and they used Nicholas' name and image and story for their own purposes, including on wikipedia. Also, it was a policy for the Mormon church, which he was in for a time prior to returning to his Catholic faith, for a select group of what the church called 'influencers' in their communities to have wikipedia pages because they were meant to implement that church's political positions into local communities. And so even the Mormon church would be caught in the act of editing and creating wikipedia articles. Only when Nicholas found out was he forced to sign an NDA because they did not want to be caught in these acts of promoting their own.
I cannot stress to you how much Nicholas hated wikipedia for continuing to allow articles to appear about him. Yes people are fooling editors but it is certainly no one that my family or Nicholas' Trust know or have even had contact with. Nicholas only gave interviews and comments to a select few journalists and as the years went on, his interviews and comments became less and less. This was partly because his health was quickly deteriorating and partly because the Speaker Nicholas Mattiello had House and Senate committee chairs not allow the legislation that Nicholas and his colleagues had drafted and refined be voted out of the committee for a vote for the full chamber to decide on whether the bill should pass. Nicholas' bills were not the only one to be treated this way. Mattiello was notorious for blocking legislation if people did not pay to play, and this is well document. Rhode Island is a very political place and a very corrupt place, the most corrupt state in the United States. In the last 30 years a governor has been sent to prison, a former speaker of the house has been sent to prison, the mayor of the capital city was sent to prison, another former speaker was forced out because he had an affair with an aide and then paid her to keep quiet, another mayor was sent to prison for bribes and kickbacks. Legislators taking their money from campaign accounts and using it for personal expenses, and not reporting donations, judges being selected based on being a politician and playing in the game for long enough. The list is very long. Nicholas fought hard against all of this and for a very long time. He was not popular in every circle. But there were good people who supported his common sense bills. Like not letting kids get sent to places like Nebraska or Florida. Proof had to be provided to the Families Court by the social services dept that there was not a foster home or group home in Rhode Island that could provide that service. Kids would have rights like being allowed to speak to their case manager or a priest or a lawyer or the police. Those were professionals who he was prevented from speaking to when he was in Nebraska and Florida while he was being hurt and abused and this was proved by documents, depositions, and people pleading guilty in court, as well as private settlements which included among other things committees in each of the private group homes that would meet monthly to address complaints of abuse or neglect and work to stop those events from happening.
None of Nicholas' fight, whether it was his four year legal fight in federal court where he took on the state and the people that hurt him or the nearly 20 yrs working to fix the broken system where he grew up, warranted an encyclopedia article. He never sought an article to be written and made demands to wikipedia that they be removed. He wanted no part in it and pleaded with people who asked him to be included to not submit any posts or articles about him to that website.
People are claiming that your website removed the articles and "acted out of caution" when we reached a resolution and I withdrew any type of complaint. I have discussed this in emails with some of you, and that was explaining Nicholas' position on wikipedia and his article there, along with images (our intellectual property) and photos taken from our website, flickr, or another website and uploaded to Wikipedia. We explained Nicholas' distaste for the people who had no respect as they used his name, stole his identity, created user pages claiming they were him, said they were him in person at conferences and even restaurants, and lots of other things that are too painful to mention here. As if any of this email has been easy to document. In fact I told the site host that we withdrew our complaint because we had reached a resolution between us. Our main complaint was that Nicholas did not make edits to wikipedia and his participation on the website was none, he had made several requests to people acting in bad faith to stop their edits and identity theft and to the Wikipedia Foundation to remove any content about him as he was not considered to be worthy for an encyclopedia article. Surely this information had a role in your decision to remove the articles especially as I have repeatedly said that I agree with your site mission because Wikipedia as you and I know do not respect privacy or accuracy or decisions to remove articles.
I am not sure how to adequately express how heartbroken I am. My heartbreak is real and there is not a day that goes by where I would not give anything to get my husband back. I miss him so much. And my children, who are very young, are beautiful and wonderful and remind me of him. They are so special, and they are a part of him, which is a beautiful thing. But their papa, my husband, is gone. I miss him so much.
Even in the most unique of situations people find common ground. If I had an agenda to keep an article about Nicholas on wikipedia I do not know what would stop me from being open with you about that. Except we are on the same side and want to hold this irresponsible website responsible. They do not have a right to be portrayed as an authority on information or facts when they are not equipped to provide a service based on basic characteristics of any encyclopedia such as reliability, quality, consistency and expertise.
I ask that we work together because if there was anything that would be a force for good, it would be combining our efforts to highlight how wikipedia is a very poor website that is a money-making machine for its stakeholders but only an occasionally reliable and poorly overseen website for people around the world. If we were to combine our resources we can possibly help more people see how the site is a disservice and allows identity theft, unreliable information, and a lack of quality to take over its site as their core values at its heart.
Careful Smiley. If it turns out that the guy they've arrested in Scotland isn't Alahverdian after all, the real Nick may rise from his grave (or scattered ashes - can you do that?) and sue.
Confidentiality notice: The information in this email from The NA Trust is confidential and may be legally privileged. It has been sent by a representative of The NA Trust and is intended solely for the addressee. Access to this email by anyone else is unauthorized. If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution or any action taken or omitted to be taken in reliance on it, is prohibited and may be unlawful. If you have received this email in error please forward the message to administration@nicholasalahverdian.com
So what I am about to send you is a conversation between him and his exwife completely unedited. This proves how he was treated and what he suffered from certain people.
Audio recording of exwife threatening to go to police and falsely accuse Nick and then leaving him on the side of an expressway. Please do not share this.
I wish you knew Nick or had the chance to meet him. Everyone either loved him or despised him. But he was a good man and if you got to know him he was such a nice person. He was not perfect but he was not abusive, he never hurt me <snip>
But no one hears about that. They only hear about how my husband was a "thief" and a "pervert" and "edited Wikipedia" and changed "his photo" when he did not do any of those things.
It makes me so angry because I do not have a forum or a journalist who I can prove it with.
As the news spanned an ocean Thursday of the capture of Nicholas Alahverdian — the man who faked his death last year amid sex assault allegations — those who knew him well in Rhode Island talked of being scammed by the best of con artists.
“He has a brilliant mind, but it is a dangerous mind,” said former state Rep. Brian G. Coogan of East Providence. Coogan knew Alahverdian, now 34, when he served as a teenage page at the State House 20 years ago.
...
Coogan said he felt so sorry that he and his wife, Heather, moved to formally adopt the small, dark-haired boy.
But a warning by the late Family Court Chief Judge Jeremiah S. Jeremiah stopped those plans in their tracks, Coogan said.
“He told us, ‘There is something really wrong with that kid. He will try to undermine you and turn your family upside-down.’”
...
Late Thursday, the Utah County Attorney’s Office released more information about the charges Alahverdian faces. They include allegations of a rape in Utah in September 2008 and other “criminal cases of sex assault, harassment and possible kidnapping from 2007 through 2019” based on police reports obtained in Rhode Island, Ohio, Utah and Massachusetts.
Court records released by the office showed “there is a consistent pattern of behavior similar to the Orem (2008 Utah) rape.”
Alahverdian would meet women online, then meet in person initially in a public place. They would go off together alone and he would “initiate some inappropriate contact leading the female to want to leave.” At that point Alahverdian “will threaten suicide or will force a non-consensual sexual encounter.”
I still can't help wondering what raised the initial suspicions. It didn't seem likely that they'd do routine DNA tests on patients... and now it seems there was a photo ID match before the DNA comparison. But what inspired them to try a photo match in the first place? They must surely have had some leads to where he was.
I still can't help wondering what raised the initial suspicions. It didn't seem likely that they'd do routine DNA tests on patients... and now it seems there was a photo ID match before the DNA comparison. But what inspired them to try a photo match in the first place? They must surely have had some leads to where he was.
What if the techniques used to locate Alahverdian were of a somewhat sensitive nature and cannot be used in court?
Perhaps a friendly man wearing a black suit and a black tie showed a hospital porter a photo and winked?
I still can't help wondering what raised the initial suspicions. It didn't seem likely that they'd do routine DNA tests on patients... and now it seems there was a photo ID match before the DNA comparison. But what inspired them to try a photo match in the first place? They must surely have had some leads to where he was.
He was apparently admitted to a Scottish Hospital under the name Arthur Knight. As a foreign national, he may have had to provide some official documentation for him to receive treatment under the NHS. If the documentation supplied were genuine it would have revealed he was using an alias. If it weren't genuine, that could well have been picked up by a sufficiently alert and well-trained bureaucrat. In either case, I'm guessing it would have been enough for the hospital to advise the police or immigration department of the discrepancies.
E voi, piuttosto che le nostre povere gabbane d'istrioni, le nostr' anime considerate. Perchè siam uomini di carne ed ossa, e di quest' orfano mondo, al pari di voi, spiriamo l'aere.
He's not a "1E" any more. He's an "E" in at least three US states and two countries!
If he decides to fight extradition? Oh, you can be pretty sure he'll do that! Including appeal to the High Court of Justiciary(T-H-L) if necessary. Plus he'll probably file counter-suits against the hospital and as many government officials as he can, for abusing him while he was deathly ill and helpless to defend himself. It's what he does.
No coffee? OK, then maybe just a little appreciation for my work out here?
He was apparently admitted to a Scottish Hospital under the name Arthur Knight. As a foreign national, he may have had to provide some official documentation for him to receive treatment under the NHS. If the documentation supplied were genuine it would have revealed he was using an alias. If it weren't genuine, that could well have been picked up by a sufficiently alert and well-trained bureaucrat. In either case, I'm guessing it would have been enough for the hospital to advise the police or immigration department of the discrepancies.
That seems, to me, like a sensible analysis of what might have happened.
He was apparently admitted to a Scottish Hospital under the name Arthur Knight. As a foreign national, he may have had to provide some official documentation for him to receive treatment under the NHS. If the documentation supplied were genuine it would have revealed he was using an alias. If it weren't genuine, that could well have been picked up by a sufficiently alert and well-trained bureaucrat. In either case, I'm guessing it would have been enough for the hospital to advise the police or immigration department of the discrepancies.
Yep, much as I'd prefer something juicier with more intrigue, you're probably right.
Alahverdian fooled the press and Wikipedia but he didn't fool us.
Not one publication has reached out for a quote or further information.
Wikipedia needs to stop relying on these sort of Breaking News stories, and Wikipediocracy should be declared an A1 Gold Star Reliable Source in Perpertuity and maybe a World Heritage Site or something.
He was apparently admitted to a Scottish Hospital under the name Arthur Knight. As a foreign national, he may have had to provide some official documentation for him to receive treatment under the NHS.
I'm not so sure about this. I'd imagine he wouldn't have walked into the hospital with mild symptoms. He'd have realized the risk, and the need to identify himself. No, he would have waited until his symptoms were really bad, when he felt he had no options if he still hoped to survive. Then he would have presented himself without any identification on his body. The hospital surely couldn't have turned away a deathly ill patient and refused them treatment, all because of a lack of identification. That part comes later, after they've stabilized him and the crisis has subsided. They have to buy his lies about who he is, at least initially. But perhaps they notify authorities at some point that they have an unidentified patient under their care, if they attempt to verify his verbal assertions of who he is and their attempts to contact his "wife" still leave positive ID in limbo.
No coffee? OK, then maybe just a little appreciation for my work out here?
Put the latest blog on the blog's front-page right away.
Then a hero can write an update.
Kiefer.Wolfowitz(T-C-L)
“Arguing with anonymous strangers on the Internet is a sucker's game because they almost always turn out to be—or to be indistinguishable from—self-righteous sixteen-year-olds possessing infinite amounts of free time.” Neal Stephenson(T-H-L)Cryptonomicon
...So how many of us are gonna wind up in the Alahverdian documentary on netflix? I volunteer as tribute, I can't wait to expose his silly bullshit, preferably for money. grifter meet even better grifter
An intellectually 'dangerous' man who faked his own death and moved abroad to escape sex assault and fraud-related charges was so charismatic that as a boy, he nearly convinced a state representative to adopt him.
Brian Coogan, 51, said he met suspected conman Nicholas Alahverdian - who is awaiting extradition to the U.S. after being nabbed in Scotland for a 2008 Utah rape - in 2000 while representing Rhode Island's 64th District.
Alahverdian, now 34, was about 14 at the time of their first introduction; he met and charmed many politicians, including Coogan, while working as an errand boy at the state House of Representatives.
He's now the talk of the nation after it was revealed Wednesday that he faked his own death and claimed to be buried at sea in 2020, as police moved in on him for fraud and sex crime-related charges.
Alahverdian has been described as both vindictive and charming, and can be seen posing in an undated photo with former Vice President Mike Pence.
Coogan told DailyMail.com that he was initially enamored by the troubled teen - who claimed to be sexually and physically victimized in foster care - and moved to give him a permanent family after Alahverdian 'begged me to adopt him' shortly after meeting him in 2000.
On the day he was in court to begin adoption proceedings, Coogan said he overheard Alahverdian threatening a social worker, saying: 'I'll tell them you abused me, that you hit me.'
A judge later talked Coogan and his wife out of it, warning that he was 'manipulative' and prone to stealing peoples' identities.
Coogan said he ultimately discovered Alahverdian's dark side on his own, as their relationship spanned nearly two decades and they had several falling outs over the years.
In an astonishing interview with DailyMail.com, Coogan recounted numerous, bizarre interactions with Alahverdian.
Coogan detailed a period when Alahverdian would drive around Rhode Island in a limousine and picked up large restaurant tabs after winning $70,000 in a civil lawsuit for the abuse he allegedly suffered in foster care. The case had been settled in 2013 and until then, Alahverdian was surviving on disability checks.
He recalled meeting Alahverdian's wife during their two-year marriage, which spanned 2015 to 2017, when Alahverdian treated the group to a lavish, $1,300 meal at Providence's most expensive restaurant.
During a conversation with his ex following their divorce, Coogan learned that Alahverdian likely bankrolled the feast with money he stole from his then-wife and parents, whose bank accounts he allegedly drained.
Throughout the years, Coogan also heard tales about how Alahverdian conned a number of other victims, convincing them to give him money and then threatening them and 'making their lives horrible.'
On one occasion, one of Coogan's teenage relatives paid Alahverdian $200 to help with a high school assignment, he said. Alahverdian took the money and then tried to shake the family down for more cash by threatening to report the plagiarized assignment to the school principal, Coogan said.
When Coogan ran in his final election campaign - he believes it was 2018 - he said Alahverdian caught wind of it and showed up unsolicited at his house, driving a U-Haul truck packed with his belongings.
He said the truck was filled with expensive campaign gear; Coogan told him he wasn't seeking help on the campaign, but was eventually goaded into letting Alahverdian help when his elderly parents fell ill.
When his mom and dad died three weeks apart, he dropped out of the race, drawing the ire of Alahverdian.
'He starts saying, "I moved back here for you. You took advantage of me like everybody else,"' Coogan told DailyMail.com. 'I said, "Whoa, whoa, Nick. I didn't I didn't ask you to move back."'
'He's crazy. But he knows how to make you feel bad.'
After their final falling out, Coogan said the alleged conman created a meanspirited, fictitious Wikipedia article about the lawmaker.
'Nick is very dangerous with the computer, as you know that the FBI couldn't catch him,' Coogan said.
'That's how dangerous this kid is. And he's very vindictive. When he gets on you, he won't quit.
'He's a very, very, very smart kid. He's dangerous.'
Alahverdian was arrested on an Interpol notice at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow on December 13. He had checked in under the alias Arthur Knight, and was intubated after nearly dying of the virus.
Alahverdian - who claimed to have died of cancer in February 2020 before being buried at sea - is being sought over a 2008 sexual assault charge in Utah.
He is accused of raping an ex-girlfriend in September 2008, with investigators discovering he'd been reported to the police over similar alleged attacks in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Utah and Ohio.
The faker, who is also known as Nicholas Rossi, was convicted of sexual assault following an 'encounter' with another student at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio.
He is suspected of carrying out multiple other sex attacks, and was also accused of a $200,000 fraud after taking out credit cards and loans in his foster mother's husband's name in Ohio, it is alleged.
Alahverdian divorced his second wife in 2017 after less than two years of marriage, and is also said to owe her $52,000.
Both of his former spouses took out restraining orders against him after their marriage ended.
Years before the made-for-Hollywood story unfolded, Alahverdian was a Rhode Island political activist who claimed to be victimized by the foster system as child, and who called for changes to state law.
His tale of a man with a haunted past - who overcame adversity to become a Harvard-educated political scientist - amazed the circles he frequented, with multiple lawmakers taking pity on him.
Coogan described him as an incredibly charming man who went from running errands at the Rhode Island State House to hobnobbing with the region's most important politicians.
Coogan said Alahverdian was at one point on friendly terms with Rhode Island's governor and Speaker of the House.
'He was around the most powerful people in Rhode Island,' he said. 'And people don't understand how he [managed to be] around these powerful people.'
Utah County Sheriff's Office in Provo began the hunt for Alahverdian in 2020 after testing old sexual assault kits, and linking him to a 2008 case which had been closed by a detective without being referred to prosecutors.
They said DNA led to his capture in Scotland, although it is unclear how staff at the hospital grew suspicious of him.
'That's where we began this investigation,' Utah County District Attorney David Leavitt told DailyMail.com Thursday. 'And what we found was a trail of victims from Utah to Ohio to Rhode Island, Massachusetts. All have very similar patterns, very similar stories.'
The prosecutor said Alahverdian had also fled charges in Ohio, although further details of the allegations against Alahverdian - who claims to be a married dad of two children - have not been shared.
He also faced fraud and extortion complaints in Utah and Ohio, the Providence-Journal reported. It is unclear if the Ohio fraud charge is linked to the fraudulently obtained loans and credit cards.
He was convicted in Dayton, Ohio in 2008 of public indecency and sexual imposition; Alahverdian claimed in a 2013 civil lawsuit that the charges stemmed from accusations he masturbated in a hallway of Sinclair Community College.
Alahverdian claimed to have died in Rhode Island, where his reported passing was mourned by state representatives, with his current medical issues meaning cops were finally able to track him down and arrest him.
The Providence Journal refused to publish an obituary for Alahverdian after a woman claiming to be his third wife failed to provide a death certificate, having claimed that her 'spouse' was buried at sea.
He faced an extradition via video link from his Scottish hospital room last month, and was kept under police guard. He is believed to remain in custody in Scotland awaiting extradition to the US.
The con saw a gushing obituary to Alahverdian posted online, which his former foster mom suspected the alleged fraudster had written himself, after recognizing his writing style.
There was also a supposedly posthumous YouTube plea, uploaded three weeks after Alahverdian's death, asking supporters to help the former foster child push for reform of Rhode Island's Department of Children, Youth, and Families.
Speaking in a croaky voice towards the end of a self-aggrandizing video touting his achievements, Alahverdian said: 'I'm Nicholas Alahverdian and I kindly ask with you to join with me in my final fight to reform DCYF.'
A local radio station's news report announcing Alahverdian's death was also uploaded to the same YouTube channel, in an attempt to underline that Alahverdian really was dead.
In March 2020, Rhode Island Representative Frank McCabe eulogized him as ‘an accomplished author and child welfare reform advocate’.
‘During his years in the custody of DCYF, he endured significant abuse, depravation of education, neglect, and unhealthy living conditions,' McCabe said in the House Chamber. ‘The challenges he faced throughout those years could have irrevocably changed his life.
'Instead, those hardships gave him understanding, passion and drive. More than a survivor, Nicholas endured and ultimately overcame those years in the system,'
A 'memorial' Twitter accounted purported to be run by 'Nick's widow Louise Alahverdian' appeared to exist to shut down any claims he was alive.
'More fake news about Nick is released the more the Rhode Island gov & now the FBI prove they tried to silence him,' said one tweet. 'Too late. Difference now is he is deceased & I as his wife and 20+ staff can tell his story. He left 7 manuscripts to publish. RI politics will never be the same.'
There is no evidence online that Louise Alahverdian exists.
The sex offender, previously convicted of two sex attacks in Ohio in 2008, used the name Arthur Knight when detained by Police Scotland officers, but it is believed he went under at least eight different aliases since going on the run in 2018.
Further details on how Knight had ended up in Scotland, and how long he had been there, have yet to emerge.
Alahverdian, whose also uses the surname Rossi, fled the US after DNA linked him to a sex attack in Ohio amid reports of similar offences across the country.
According to the Utah County Attorney's Office, he is accused of fraud and sexual assault charges in at least two states.
An obituary was posted in February 2020 which claimed Alahverdian had died of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and that his last words were 'fear not and run toward the bliss of the sun'.
The obituary claimed he passed away with his wife, family, and two children at his beside.
'At the time of his passing, the room was filled with the sounds of the end credits for the 1997 film “Contact” by composer Alan Silvestri, a film and score which held special meaning for Mr. Alahverdian,' the obituary said.
The tribute also described him as 'one of the most vocal, outspoken, and constructive advocates for reforming Rhode Island's [Department of Children, Youth and Families] and the child care system.'
A year after his self-proclaimed 'death', reports in the US emerged that police did not believe he was dead and were actively hunting him.
He had previously been questioned by the FBI over a credit card fraud allegation.
But he is now subject to extradition proceedings to Utah after DNA led officials to Scotland where he was found in hospital on a ventilator.
In 2008, Alahverdian was convicted of two sexual assault charges in Ohio and in 2017 his DNA from that case was uploaded to a national database.
Alahverdian grew up in foster care in Rhode Island and 'made it his mission to fight against his mission to fight against what he described as abuses in the state's childcare system,' local radio station WRPO 630 said in reporting his death.
Prosecutors claim that in 2020, his DNA matched samples from a sexual assault said to have taken place in Utah and discovered he was suspect in a number of other incidents across America.
He also had a live warrant out for his arrest after failing to register as a sex offender in Rhode Island.
Alahverdian is now the subject of extradition proceedings instigated by Leavitt, who thanked police worldwide including Police Scotland, for finding the wanted man.
He said: 'Our office is grateful for the significant interagency collaboration of law enforcement to bring this suspect to justice.'
An official Utah County Attorney statement added: 'Investigators also learned that Nicholas Rossi had fled the country to avoid prosecution in Ohio and attempted to lead investigators and state legislators in other states to believe that he was deceased.
'Through the diligent efforts of SBI Agents, and various investigators in other states and agencies, and in cooperation with the Utah County Attorney's Office, Mr. Rossi was discovered to be living under an assumed name in Scotland.
'He has been taken into custody and the Utah County Attorney's Office is working with federal and international agencies to extradite Mr Rossi back to Utah.'
Rhode Island State Police Major Robert A. Creamer said: 'He was located in Scotland about a month ago, where he was on a ventilator.'
A Police Scotland spokeswoman said: 'Officers arrested a 34-year-old man in Glasgow on Monday, December 13, in connection with an international arrest warrant. A report was submitted to the procurator fiscal.'
A Crown Office spokeswoman added: 'I can confirm that Arthur Knight appeared via video link from QEUH on Thursday 23 December 2021 in relation to extradition proceedings for the US.
This story is compelling mostly because of how incredibly incompetent he was in trying to fake his death. Almost everyone I know over the age of about 15 could have done a better job.
To that end, sociopathic narcissism (to armchair psychologize for a bit) like this is fascinating for its self-defeating characteristics. The old clichè of, "it's almost like he wanted to be caught" applies. He just couldn't stop himself from continuing to contact people even though all evidence of the outcomes kept demonstrating that he was just digging himself deeper and deeper into a hole.
Smiley, what is the aggregate size of all those e-mails sent to you signed by Louise? In terms of correspondence with someone who is on the lam, it feels like it's gotta be some kind of record.
Smiley, what is the aggregate size of all those e-mails sent to you signed by Louise? In terms of correspondence with someone who is on the lam, it feels like it's gotta be some kind of record.
She sent me a little bit more, and there's a couple of emails I sent from alt accounts, maybe some stuff on reddit, I forget.
This is the highlight, which was sent to loads of people:
Nicholas Alahverdian either pretending to be his imaginary wife Louise Alahverdian or her imaginary lawyer Adam Smith wrote:
> Dear Ms. Maher and Ms. Keton
We were then sent a link in an SMS text message to a website with a video where Mr. Alahverdian's face was photo shopped onto a shooting victim as the body bounced to and fro and then faded into a another photo shopped video where his head was again photo shopped onto a man who was having illicit relations with a horse.
Rogue Wikipediocracy Staff supposedly wrote:
"When we paid to have created Wiki nicky article last year we know how to get money from your hubby [...] we kept good stuff in , now hes dead so it your duty BITCH. do it now[.] the article is there and will always be. but it will be good or bad. do you want world to have the "fake news" on his article to? and do not try to contact wiki offices as said jimmy wales is our OG and behind this control. no one can edit or defend your shit cunt hubby or even delete article because WE ARE WIKI employees."
Can't think where he got the notion that Jimbo of all people was our OG...
Also, it dawns on me (as I'm sure it has to many others keeping watch here) that the checkuser logs for the Alahverdian-linked accounts (now all globally locked) could have been seen by investigators. Of course, I'm sure the checkusers will neither confirm nor deny any such cooperation occurred.
Also, it dawns on me (as I'm sure it has to many others keeping watch here) that the checkuser logs for the Alahverdian-linked accounts (now all globally locked) could have been seen by investigators. Of course, I'm sure the checkusers will neither confirm nor deny any such cooperation occurred.
Didn't you hear? Alahverdian is an evil genius! He's probably smart enough to use a VPN. Probably.
Also, it dawns on me (as I'm sure it has to many others keeping watch here) that the checkuser logs for the Alahverdian-linked accounts (now all globally locked) could have been seen by investigators. Of course, I'm sure the checkusers will neither confirm nor deny any such cooperation occurred.
Didn't you hear? Alahverdian is an evil genius! He's probably smart enough to use a VPN. Probably.
Using one of the vanishingly few proxy IP-addresses that are unblocked, no doubt! Very smart, indeed.
Curious, then, how he missed the little detail of just, y'know, starting a new account. Eh. we all make mistakes.
We shouldn't judge him too harshly just yet, there still might be an innocent explanation for all this.
I liked the totally plausible innocent explanation that there is a Louise-impersonator who got control of the Wikipedia account passwords and used them to wreak havoc by doing such nefarious things like uploading the wrong picture and so forth. But they were also responsible, oddly, for both getting the article recreated and were also clever enough to try unsuccessfully to delete it. That's like some serious n-dimensional chess.
Also, it dawns on me (as I'm sure it has to many others keeping watch here) that the checkuser logs for the Alahverdian-linked accounts (now all globally locked) could have been seen by investigators. Of course, I'm sure the checkusers will neither confirm nor deny any such cooperation occurred.
Pretty sure the FBI would have the sense to just ask the foundation for CU data and none of us would ever know.
information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom
In addition to "Louise", the foundation was clearly contacted by someone alleging to be Alahverdien's lawyer link whom I also doubt exists. While there appear to be a few fairly prominent lawyers by this name, none are based on Cambridge.
information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom
Also, it dawns on me (as I'm sure it has to many others keeping watch here) that the checkuser logs for the Alahverdian-linked accounts (now all globally locked) could have been seen by investigators. Of course, I'm sure the checkusers will neither confirm nor deny any such cooperation occurred.
I am not a CU by any stretch but I can assure you that the CU logs in this case are absolutely worthless to anyone, including the FBI or local law enforcement in this case. WP had nothing to do with getting him. It's pretty much a combo of karma (he's a COVIDIOT who is a Trumper and an incel) and his own egotistical stupidity, which almost seems redundant.
And yeah, I'm celebrating with some vodka and lemonade. Viva la _____________________
Nick Alahverdian’s sister-in-law Hannah wrote:In early 2019 almost no one had heard of coronavirus.
The majority of the people in the world were not weak or struggling or worrying about illnesses or a contagious disease. No one was suffering breathing trouble or experiencing other tiring effects.
But one man did suffer all of those things from a different cause. And that was Nick Alahverdian.
No he did not have coronavirus as that had yet to make its way around the world. Instead Nick Alahverdian was battling non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, an often ruthless form of blood cancer. There were good days and bad days but Nick began to have more and more bad days since his diagnosis in 2018.
Nick began to realize that there was not much time left, almost intuitively. When he had the energy he had everyone in stitches with his jokes and stories and imitations of celebrities and politicians from around the world.
There was one particular moment that Nick had us all giggling like schoolgirls and biting our thumbs in his hospital room to avoid disturbing the other patients with such loud laughing. Nick convinced one of our well-meaning cousins unfamiliar with the “art” of a “professional obituary writer” (a career I had no idea existed before this incident) to speak in his own words about what should be in Nick’s obituary. For a laugh Nick sent him to speak to the obituary author on the phone and describe, in his own words, what should be in the obituary. About 90 minutes passed and then we were met with a cherry-scented email that made, to say the least, his phone drip with saccharine-sweet sentimentality.
Gone were the standards of the classically droll obituary. Nick became a bed-ridden but defiant dandy that belonged in a Wonka’s chocolate factory situated in Narnia. The entire obituary read like it was written by L. Frank Baum and most of it was unusable, especially since Nick wasn’t dead yet, but goodness, did we laugh.
This fictional Nick stopped to smell the petals of violets. He donated his non-existent flowing gray locks lost from cancer to Donald Trump so he could have a wig with a tint and style that wouldn’t frighten a turtle out of its shell. Obituary Nick who didn’t gamble in real life also was a blackjack champion who unintentionally donated the entirety of his earnings when he asked an older lady waiting for her car outside the casino if she wanted a large bag of slightly stale thinly sliced dark chocolate they gave him as a prize for winning so many hands.
But there was one line that caught Nick’s eye that was at the same time bombastic and intriguing.
“Fear not and run toward the bliss of the sun.”
President and Trustees of the Alahverdian Foundation was incorporated in Ohio as a nonprofit in 2015. It was canceled for failure to file a statement of continued existence in July 2020.
Nicholas was the chairman, trustees were
Charles Lane
Sharon Lane
Micheal Alahverdian
Brian Zimmerman M.D.
Bruce McCrae
Edward Brady
Kirk Stucki
Stephen Graham
NexusGovernment was incorporated in Rhode Island in March 2011 and had its certificate revoked in August 2012 for failure to maintain a registered office. The directors were
Nicholas
Julianne Smith
Matt Testa
all using the address 298 SAYLES AVENUE PAWTUCKET, RI 02860 USA
Julianne Smith appears to be the person who uses the handle juliannepigeon on twitter, etsy, pinterest and various other social media sites. Tortoiseandpigeon is a Alahverdian SPA.
Charles and Sharon were his adoptive parents. Nicky took out credit cards in Charles' name and racked up thousands of dollars of debt.
