BIZARRE SCHEME

Man Accused of Faking Death to Dodge Rape Charges Convicted of Sex Assault

Nicholas Rossi also adopted a woeful British accent and claimed to be an Irish orphan.

A U.S. conman who fled the country to evade rape charges was found guilty in the first of two Utah trials. The jury concluded Wednesday that Nicholas Rossi was guilty of a sexual assault in 2008. The Rhode Island native, 38, fled to the U.K. to evade allegations in a saga that spanned two decades and involved a series of guises and ruses to throw off law enforcement. Among his bizarre schemes were a woeful British accent, which he later dropped, assuming a fake identity citing “credible threats” to his life, and faking his own death with a bogus obituary in February 2020. Rossi, whose real name is Nicholas Alahverdian, was ultimately arrested in Glasgow, Scotland, in 2021 when he was undergoing treatment for COVID-19, but he would later claim to be an Irish orphan. The victim and her parents testified in the Salt Lake City trial this week, while Rossi, in a wheelchair and using oxygen, refused to do so on his own behalf, the Associated Press reports. Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said in a statement after the verdict, “We are grateful to the survivor in this case for her willingness to come forward, years after this attack took place.” Rossi was convicted of sex-related offenses in Ohio in 2008 and has a second trial pending in Utah County.