https://apnews.com/article/us-...854112b7c52794d202b2

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal prosecutors on Wednesday charged two men they say were posing as federal agents, giving free apartments and other gifts to U.S. Secret Service agents, including one who worked on the first lady’s security detail.

The two men — Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Ali, 36 — were taken into custody as more than a dozen FBI agents charged into a luxury apartment building in Southeast Washington on Wednesday evening.

Prosecutors allege Taherzadeh and Ali had falsely claimed to work for the Department of Homeland Security and work on a special task force investigating gang and violence connected to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. They allege the two posed as law enforcement officers to integrate with actual federal agents.

Taherzadeh is accused of providing Secret Service officers and agents with rent-free apartments — including a penthouse worth over $40,000 a year — along with iPhones, surveillance systems, a drone, flat screen television, a generator, gun case and other policing tools, according to court documents.

He also offered to let them use a black GMC SUV that he identified as an “official government vehicle,” prosecutors say. In one instance, Taherzadeh offered to purchase a $2,000 assault rifle for a Secret Service agent who is assigned to protect the first lady.

Prosecutors said four Secret Service employees were placed on leave earlier this week as part of the investigation.

The plot unraveled when the U.S. Postal Inspection Service began investigating an assault involving a mail carrier at the apartment building and the men identified themselves as being part of a phony Homeland Security unit they called the U.S. Special Police Investigation Unit.

Prosecutors say the men had also set up surveillance in the building and had been telling residents there that they could access any of their cellphones at any time. The residents also told investigators they believed the men had access to their personal information.

Taherzadeh and Ali are scheduled to appear in court on Thursday. It was not immediately clear if they had lawyers who could comment on the allegations.

Authorities did not detail what, if anything, the men were aiming to accomplish by posing as law enforcement officers or by providing the gifts. Prosecutors said the investigation remains ongoing.

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?? unraveled because of a postal inspector ? Can Secret Service be this bad ?

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/s...ting-federal-agents/

The FBI alleges that Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Ali, 35, have been pretending to be various officers and employees of the U.S. government, including members of federal law enforcement agencies, since February 2020 .

In one instance, Taherzadeh allegedly offered to buy a gun for a Secret Service agent assigned to the first lady's protective detail. Four Secret Service agents have been placed on administrative leave amid the ongoing investigation.

The fourth U.S. Secret Service agent in the affidavit, identified as "Witness 5," was assigned to protect the White House. The agent lived in an apartment, again provided by Taherzadeh, rent-free from February 2021 to January 2022 after Taherzadeh allegedly told Witness 5 the "HSI had approved extra rooms as part of his operations," which officials say was not true.

In a statement to CBS News, the U.S. Secret Service said it "has worked, and continues to work, with its law enforcement partners in this ongoing investigation."

"All personnel involved in this matter are on administrative leave and are restricted from accessing Secret Service facilities, equipment and systems," it said. "The Secret Service adheres to the highest levels of professional standards and conduct and will remain in active coordination with the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security."

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"highest levels of professional standards"

This is the goofiest USSS story yet. And what was the end game for these two dudes? What would their access enable them to do?

Wouldnt be surprised if this was a foreign government trying to compromise USSS agents to exploit, albeit a very clumsy attempt.

Although 4 USSS agents got suspended so partially successful.

If Im not mistaken, Taherzadeh is an Iranian surname.

Wait.

Why are we skipping by the whole "giving gifts" from anyone to anyone?

I get "Secret Santa" gift exchange for Christmas, and maybe the occasional "special occasion gift giving of less than a $20 or $50" that might be permissive under regulations.

But anyone receiving more than "trinkets", has me wondering why the recipients are not showing off shiny bracelets to all the boys in Gen Pop?

Arrest them for the possession/receiving or whatever is allowed, and do the investigation while they cool their heels, or post bail and go through the same shit as John Q. Pooblik has to endure.

A very, very weird story. I’m wondering what the USSS agent’s side of the story is? They surely had a supervisor and chain of command to report to, and getting all of these perks never came up?

This has the makings of a badly-written spy novel; Tom Clancy did it better with “Executive Orders”.

Not very good Iranian spies

Would love to know if any of the apartments or other gifts contained any recording devices, almost seems like they were set up to be surveilled or blackmailed. Another interesting I have learned from working with a few USSS agents is that often times when they get detailed or assigned to the DC office their spouses will not move and opt to stay at thier home, not wanting to uproot the family to move to the DC metro area just for the agent never to be home since they are on travel with the protection detail all the time. I have heard that groups of agents will go in and rent apartments together to help defray costs, especially since they will only be there a nigh here or their.

FYI postal inspectors are sworn armed Federal agents. They investigate postal fraud mostly. I met one. He was ex-mil and preferred his job because he could run his own investigations more directly and not have a hierarchy of supervisors and managers like at the FBI.

That is probably the single biggest issue with the FBI - too much administrative management calling the shots vs. actual investigations.

I have been impressed with the Secret Service any time I have seen them. Very professional. This is pretty bad if they really got caught accepting that kind of value in gifts. They just threw their careers in the toilet. Remember the guys who went overseas and went drinking and whoring? This is a lot worse.

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
This is the goofiest USSS story yet. And what was the end game for these two dudes? What would their access enable them to do?

Does it really matter? If you found out I'd been in your home repeatedly without your approval or knowledge, but I hadn't taken anything, would it be an issue to you? The incompetence of this administration, top to bottom, is simply astounding. We pay secret service costs for a keystone cops level of professionalism.

https://www.voanews.com/a/fake...r-says-/6520444.html

'Fake' US Agent Claimed Ties to Pakistan Intelligence, Prosecutor Says

One of two men arrested in Washington for allegedly posing as U.S. federal security officials and cultivating access to the Secret Service, which protects President Joe Biden, claimed ties to Pakistani intelligence, a federal prosecutor told a judge Thursday.

Justice Department assistant attorney Joshua Rothstein asked a judge not to release Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Ali, 35, the men arrested Wednesday for allegedly posing as Department of Homeland Security investigators.

The men also stand accused of providing lucrative favors to members of the Secret Service, including one agent on the security detail of first lady Jill Biden.

Rothstein told the court that in 2019, just months before the two began cultivating security professionals in their Washington apartment building, Ali had traveled to Pakistan, Turkey, Iran and Qatar, and transited Doha multiple times.

In addition, Rothstein said, Ali "made claims to witnesses that he had connections to the ISI, which is the Pakistani intelligence service."

The Justice Department is treating the case as a criminal matter and not a national security issue. But the Secret Service suspended four agents over their involvement with the suspects.

According to an affidavit filed with the court, Taherzadeh and Ali, both U.S. citizens, lived in an apartment building in Washington where numerous federal security-related employees live.

They convinced some of those agents that they themselves were special Homeland Security investigators, displaying uniforms and documents in support of those claims.

Both were initially charged with one count of false impersonation of an officer of the United States, which could bring up to three years in prison.

But Rothstein told the court that the charge could be expanded to conspiracy, which carries a maximum of five years in prison.

The motives of the two men were unclear, but at one point they recruited a third person to work for them, assigning him "to conduct research on an individual that provided support to the Department of Defense and intelligence community."

Taherzadeh meanwhile provided several Secret Service and Homeland Security employees with rent-free units costing as much as $4,000 a month, according to the affidavit.

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meanwhile the FBI is hot on the trail of parents who don't want their children indoctrinated into radical leftist activists

Does the Secret Service hire people that are that easy to dupe?

If so, God help whoever they're protecting.

quote:

Originally posted by Jimbo Jones:
Wouldnt be surprised if this was a foreign government trying to compromise USSS agents to exploit, albeit a very clumsy attempt.

Although 4 USSS agents got suspended so partially successful.

If Im not mistaken, Taherzadeh is an Iranian surname.

You're not mistaken, Ali is wide-spread in Iran too, but we should have already known that given that the AP was very careful not to disclose who was sponsoring the imposters.

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:
Wait.

Why are we skipping by the whole "giving gifts" from anyone to anyone?

I get "Secret Santa" gift exchange for Christmas, and maybe the occasional "special occasion gift giving of less than a $20 or $50" that might be permissive under regulations.

But anyone receiving more than "trinkets", has me wondering why the recipients are not showing off shiny bracelets to all the boys in Gen Pop?

Arrest them for the possession/receiving or whatever is allowed, and do the investigation while they cool their heels, or post bail and go through the same shit as John Q. Pooblik has to endure.

I think those laws apply to getting gifts from foreign government/agents or vendors, not to "gifts" from other fellow US law enforcement agents. Especially if it's presented as "this is covered by my budget for this project."

But it is a humdinger how no one vetted their credentials.

^^ No I really don't think it's reasonable for a luxury apartment or "assault rifle" to be provided by another agency they are not attached to in some official manner. It may not be illegal in a criminal sense but it's way out of line. And they were imposters so it WAS gifts/bribes.

This story gets even more bizarre

https://nypost.com/2022/04/08/...ibery-scheme-report/

Secret Service agents assigned to the security details for President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are involved in a bizarre bribery and infiltration scheme operated by a pair of phony federal agents, according to a new report.

At least four Secret Service members were compromised by alleged conspirators Arian Taherzadeh and Haider Ali, according to a Friday filing by federal prosecutors. The feds say Ali boasted of links to Pakistan’s powerful Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency and his passport indicated recent trips to Iran and Pakistan.

Prosecutors say one compromised Secret Service agent was assigned to first lady Jill Biden’s security detail. RealClearPolitics reported Friday that members of the president and Harris’ details were also implicated.

Secret Service agents typically rotate through different details over time and it’s unclear whom the agents were assigned to protect when FBI agents raided a Southeast DC apartment building late Wednesday and arrested Taherzadeh and Ali.

Taherzadeh and Ali, operating out of five units of a ritzy apartment building in DC’s Navy Yard neighborhood, allegedly told their targets that they were working on covert investigations into last year’s Capitol riot as well as doing undercover anti-gang work. They claimed to be special agents at the Department of Homeland Security’s non-existent US Special Police Investigation Unit.

The men plied Secret Service agents plus at least one Department of Homeland Security official with gifts and free rent — and even shot one of their “applicants” to the phony unit with an Airsoft rifle “to evaluate their pain tolerance and reaction ,” according to court documents.

Taherzadeh, who is not allowed to possess guns due to a 2013 domestic violence conviction

The men allegedly gained access codes to all units in the building and claimed to be able to surveil residents’ cellphones. Many journalists, government workers and members of Congress live either in the building or nearby.

“Taherzadeh stated that Ali had obtained the electronic access codes and a list of all of the tenants in the apartment complex. Taherzadeh further stated that Ali was the individual that funded most of their day-to-day operation but Taherzadeh did not know the source of the funds,” the new filing says.

Authorities say they seized guns, sniper scopes, a drone, police lights, protective vests, gas masks, “breach equipment,” law enforcement insignia and equipment to make fake IDs.

One member of the Secret Service was allowed by the men to live rent-free in a penthouse with a market cost of more than $40,000 from February 2021 to January 2022 — while another federal law enforcement officer’s rent in the building also was covered

The alleged conspirators also “offered these individuals use of what Taherzadeh represented to be ‘official government vehicles'” and allegedly “offered to purchase a $2,000 assault rifle for a United Secret Service Agent assigned to the First Lady’s protective detail.”

The four Secret Service agents are currently on leave, prosecutors say.

The stunning plot was detected by chance when someone assaulted a mail carrier and building residents told a US postal inspector they should consult with Taherzadeh and Ali . The postal inspector grew suspicious and informed the DHS Inspector General’s Office, which in turn alerted the FBI.



court filing:

https://nypost.com/wp-content/...es/2/2022/04/1-1.pdf


from the court filing:

In furtherance of their false and fraudulent conduct, TAHERZADEH and ALI
recruited an individual to be an “employee of DHS” and “serve on their task force.” As part of the
“recruitment process” TAHERZADEH and ALI required that the “applicant” be shot with an
Airsoft rifle to evaluate their pain tolerance and reaction. Subsequent to being shot, the applicant
was informed that their hiring was in process. The applicant was also assigned to conduct research
on an individual that provided support to the Department of Defense and intelligence community.

The USPIS inspector then interviewed TAHERZADEH and ALI. Both individuals
also self-identified as investigators with the U.S. Special Police Investigation Unit (USSP). ALI
identified the USSP as part of DHS. Furthermore, ALI identified TAHERZADEH as an HSI
Special Agent. TAHERZADEH and ALI identified themselves as deputized “special police” with
the city government of the District of Columbia. TAHERZADEH and ALI claimed to be involved
in undercover gang-related investigations as well as conducting investigations related to the
violence at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Witness 2’s federal agency
was in the process of transitioning from P229 Sig Sauer to Glock 19 Generation 5 as the issued
service weapon. At some point after Witness 2 had received the issued Glock 19 Generation 5,
TAHERZADEH made a comment “we are all transitioning to the Glock 19’s in DHS.” After
TAHERZADEH made that comment, TAHERZADEH pulled a concealed Glock 19 Generation 5
from his appendix area. TAHERZADEH demonstrated that his was identical to Witness 2’s issued
Glock 19 Generation 5, to include the TLR-7A Streamlight flashlight attachment.

Look when you carry a security clearance you have to refresh your training all the time. Stuff like this is covered. They know they were breaking the law.

I hoped gov't agents with nearly omnipotent power to destroy citizens' lives would be sharper than that. But no. The FBI is a bureaucracy and suffers from the dumb like other bureaucracies do.

the team that went in to arrest the impersonators

I've been waiting for more details to come out on this story for it to hopefully make sense. Still not happening.

I just want to find out when the USSS agents are going to jail and exactly what the end game was here.