Alleged prince from the Middle East arrested for a murder-for-hire plot in the U.S.
The FBI arrested businessman Fereidoun Khalilian on June 22 in Las Vegas after discovering his suspected involvement in a murder-for-hire conspiracy.
After discovering the arrangements, the intended victim of the scheme informed the authorities, which triggered the investigation.
Khalilian, who has a following of 135,000 on Instagram and connections to a number of celebrities, projected a wealthy image in his social media posts.
He identified himself as "Prince Fred" and claimed that he was a Middle Eastern royal prince.
However, the victim thought that Khalilian's wealth was earned by scams rather than a royal heritage.
The victim had previously worked for Khalilian in 2009 as an IT specialist for his telemarketing company.
The Federal Trade Commission closed down the telemarketing company for scamming customers out of thousands of dollars.
The victim decided to make a documentary exposing Khalilian's life of deceit and fraud after running into him again in 2019.
The victim got death and mutilation threats from Khalilian as the documentary was being produced.
The victim had been warned by a former bodyguard of Khalilian that Khalilian had paid him $20,000 to murder the documentary producer.
Khalilian received a snapshot purporting to show the producer deceased, but it turned out to be fake.
On March 21, the victim informed the FBI of the murder-for-hire story, and the agency afterwards kept an eye on conversations between Khalilian and the bodyguard.
Following his arrest, Khalilian will stand trial in California District Court at the start of September.
Please be advised that the details offered are based on a criminal complaint, and the investigation is currently active.
