Nicholas Alahverdian

Nicholas Alahverdian (born July 11, 1987), also known as Nicholas Rossi and Arthur Knight, among other aliases, is an American sex offender who faked his own death in 2020.

Alahverdian alleged that he suffered abuse and negligence in the Department of Children Youth and Families (DCYF), Rhode Island's social service system.

Alahverdian has alleged that for a period of 15 months beginning in March 2002 the DCYF placed him in their "night-to-night" program, in which a youth would spend his or her days at a DCYF building in Pawtucket and nights at one of several shelters around Rhode Island, including locations in Central Falls, Providence, Narragansett, or Woonsocket.

Alahverdian said he did not attend school during this period.

According to Alahverdian, the other youths stole his belongings and threatened and assaulted him during this period.

Alahverdian claims to have formed NexusGovernment, an organization to lobby for child welfare, in 2002, at the age of 15.

However, Alahverdian said that he quit the organization in March 2003.

Local media reported that Alahverdian was sent by DCYF to Boys Town in Nebraska and Manatee Palms Youth Services in Florida in 2003.

According to a DCYF spokesperson, they stopped using Manatee Palms Youth Services in 2005 due to "concerns we had with the way they were treating our kids".

In 2005, Alahverdian was returned to Rhode Island, where he received treatment at Bradley Hospital for a two-week period.

Afterwards, he was placed in an independent living program.

Alahverdian told WPRI that he was beaten daily in Florida, Nebraska and Rhode Island by other youths in DCYF programs.

Alahverdian told WJAR that he suffered "torture, beatings, assault" and neglect under DCYF care until 2005.

For a short period of time, Alahverdian studied comparative literature in extension program classes offered by Harvard University.

He was arrested that December on charges of an alleged rape in Utah in 2008, for which a sealed arrest warrant had been issued in September 2020, and other alleged crimes.

In November 2022, Edinburgh Sheriff Court confirmed that the arrested man was Nicholas Rossi, despite his claims of mistaken identity.

In August 2023, a sheriff ruled that he could be extradited to the United States, this was confirmed by Justice Secretary Angela Constance in October 2023, and he was extradited on 5 January 2024.

Alahverdian alleged his parents were "abusive and alcoholic" and "couldn't take care of him" leading to his placement in the care of the DCYF.

Early in his life, he was diagnosed with behavioral and mental health issues.

His stepfather David Rossi stated: "He just wouldn't listen in school, he hit the mother, hit the grandmother all the time, hit his siblings. I used to have to hold him down, and he'd be spitting at me" and as a result, he was placed in psychiatric care at Butler Hospital and later, Bradley Hospital.

There, doctors diagnosed him with narcissistic personality disorder and attention deficit disorder.

After being discharged from a treatment program, he briefly went back to his family home but was removed and placed into the care of DCYF as a result of creating conflict within his family home.

In support of this allegation, he unsuccessfully sued the DCYF in federal court in 2011, then voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit when Rhode Island waived his medical expenses debt of around US$200,000.

Additionally, The Providence Journal, reporting in 2011, stated that NexusGovernment was only "recently formed".

In a 2011 lawsuit filed against the Rhode Island DCYF, he testified that he was prohibited from contacting others, such as the media, attorneys, the state child advocate and his caseworker during this period.

Alahverdian alleged that he was sent out of state because, in Rhode Island, he was "a source of information on DCYF".

Rhode Island authorities stated that there were no records of Alahverdian being abused.

The Providence Journal, in April 2012, described the night-to-night program as a "stifling" experience and said Alahverdian was "denied a substantial chunk of his childhood".

Alahverdian was hired as a legislative page in the Rhode Island House of Representatives at age 14.

Alahverdian said that he informed lawmakers about his negative experience in DCYF care, but received no assistance.

Brian G. Coogan, a Rhode Island Representative at the time, stated that he felt sorry for the teenage Alahverdian and took action to formally adopt him, but was warned off from doing so by Family Court Chief Judge Jeremiah S. Jeremiah.

Coogan said that Jeremiah predicted that Alahverdian "will try to undermine you and turn your family upside-down".

He did not graduate, as in 2012, he was "administratively withdrawn" from the course when the university learned of his sex offender status.

Despite this, Alahverdian claimed to be a "Harvard scholar, political scientist and sociologist".

After Alahverdian failed to overturn his sex offender conviction, "he became a men's rights figurehead for radicalized people" who claim they are unable to get romantic or sexual partners despite desiring them, often referred to as incels.

In 2017, Alahverdian lived with a friend in Providence, Rhode Island.

In January 2020, Alahverdian said that he had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

In February 2020, news outlets reported Alahverdian's death, citing his family's anonymous testimony and his obituary.

The reports of his death were disputed, as they occurred after the FBI initiated a fraud investigation against him, while Rhode Island police had issued a warrant for him for failure to register as a sex offender.

In October 2021, he was identified in a hospital in Scotland while undergoing treatment for COVID-19.