NBC Dateline: Were Nicholas Alahverdian and Arthur Knight the same person?

Nicholas Alahverdian, a convicted s*x offender and conman who went by multiple aliases over the years, including Nicholas Rossi and Arthur Knight, faked his death in 2020. He was later found at a hospital in Scotland, where he was on a ventilator after contracting COVID-19. He pretended to be Knight, a Scottish man, after s*xual assault allegations surfaced and the FBI started investigating him.

Reports state that Alahverdian, who changed his name to Arthur Knight while in Scotland, "fled the country to avoid prosecution" and attempted to mislead authorities in several US states who believed he was dead. He is a suspect in multiple s*xual assault cases throughout the US. He even wrote his own obituary. The fugitive was later identified via his tattoos and fingerprints, among other evidence.

NBC's Dateline is set to feature Nicholas Alahverdian's case in an all-new two-hour episode, titled Dead Man Talking. The official synopsis of the episode states:

"Investigators search for an American fugitive accused of faking his own death to evade law enforcement agencies. Andrea Canning confronts the man at the center of the international mystery."

The upcoming episode will air on the channel at 9 pm ET on Friday, April 21, 2023.

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Nicholas Alahverdian used the alias Arthur Knight after faking his death in 2020, after which he moved to Scotland

An American fraudster and s*x offender, Nicholas Alahverdian, faked his own death in February 2020 to evade s*xual assault and fraud-related charges in a number of states. He then moved to Glasgow, Scotland, with his wife and pretended to be Arthur Knight, a professor teaching at the nearby University of Glasgow. He even changed his accent and had blonde hair and a mustache.

In January 2020, before his alleged death, Alahverdian, an outspoken and prominent critic of Rhode Island’s child welfare program, who claimed he was abused and neglected and also tried to unsuccessfully sue the department, announced that he was diagnosed with late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The following month, news of his demise surfaced, along with an obituary.

The timing of Alahverdian's illness and supposed "death" had led to speculations that there was a possibility he was trying to escape an FBI investigation into a fraud charge filed against him in Ohio. He was also wanted by Rhode Island authorities for failing to register as a s*x offender.

Jeffrey Pine, a former Rhode Island attorney general and Alahverdian's former attorney, claimed that the fugitive was living in Ireland at the end of 2019. Pine claimed he was suspicious that the con faked his death after learning about the FBI's fraud investigation.

According to The Daily Beast, Jeffrey Pine told The Journal in an interview that:

"The next thing I know he gets very, very sick with cancer and dies within weeks. Do I think it’s possible he’s alive? Of course I do."

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Nicholas Alahverdian was arrested from a Scotland hospital in December 2021

Years ago, in 2008, Nicholas Alahverdian was convicted on two s*x-related charges arising from a case at an Ohio community college where he was studying. About a decade later, when evidence from that particular case was entered into a federal database, he became a suspect in multiple other s*xual assault cases across the country. Authorities reported:

"In 2018 the DNA profile from the Utah sexual assault came back as a match to a sexual assault case in Ohio. 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."

Reports state that sometime in 2021, Alahverdian moved to Scotland with his wife, Miranda Knight, who was one of the first to inform American media of his death. There, he made international news following his arrest from the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital on s*xual assault and other charges stemming from previous crimes. He was on a ventilator, undergoing treatment for COVID-19.

The fugitive was wanted by Interpol until his arrest. Afterwards, Alahverdian, who had changed his identity, calling himself Arthur Knight, was presented in a court of law where he denied being Nicholas Alahverdian or Nicholas Rossi (another one of his many aliases). Investigators used his distinct tattoos and fingerprints to successfully draw connections between Knight and Alahverdian.

According to the BBC, a few of his other aliases are - Nicholas Edward Rossi, Nicholas Alahverdian-Rossi, Nick Alan, Nicholas Brown, Arthur Brown, and Arthur Knight.

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NBC Dateline to provide further details on the curious case of Nicholas Alahverdian this Friday.