Landlord of men accused of impersonating DHS agents won unpaid rent judgment

The landlord of two Washington, D.C., men charged with impersonating Department of Homeland Security agents won a judgment for more than $222,000 in unpaid rent for the five apartments they lived in and loaned out to U.S. Secret Service agents, a court filing shows.

The default judgment against “United States Special Police,” a company connected to the men, Arian Taherzadeh and Haider Ali, was entered in Superior Court in Washington in January.

United States Special Police which is not a law enforcement agency, had leased the five apartments at Crossing on First Street since late 2020, according to a lawsuit filed in July by a limited liability corporation owned by Tishman Speyer, the real estate giant that owns the building.

But USSP had not paid any rent during that time, the suit says.

And “they had created a fake person to sign the lease,” a federal prosecutor said in court Friday, referring to Tazherzadeh and Ali.

A Tishman Speyer spokesman declined to comment on the case.

The rent case came to light as the men were due to appear at a detention hearing in U.S. District Court in Washington.

Prosecutors have asked a judge to order that the men be held without bail.

Ali, 35, and the 40-year-old Taherzadeh were arrested Wednesday at Crossing on First Street, located in the Navy Yard area of Southeast Washington.

Federal prosecutors accuse them of impersonating Homeland Security agents for several years, and say the FBI found weapons, ammunition, and law-enforcement paraphernalia in their apartments, despite the fact that neither man is employed by law enforcement.

A court filing by prosecutors on Friday said, that while they were claiming to be law enforcement agents involved in covert operations, “they compromised United States Secret Service (USSS) personnel involved in protective details and with access to the White House complex by lavishing gifts upon them, including rent-free living.”

“Taherzadeh stated that Ali had obtained the electronic access codes and a list of all of the tenants in the apartment complex,” which has hundreds of units, the filing said. Those access codes allow tenants to enter their apartments and the amenity areas, and operate elevators in the complex.

Four Secret Service personnel have been placed on leave as a result of the case.

The Secret Service has not said if those agents include one who had been assigned to first lady Jill Biden’s protective detail.

That agent was identified in a criminal complaint as being offered an AR-15-style assault rifle valued at $2,000 by Taherzadeh. He lived in an apartment below Taherzadeh in the same building, the complaint said.

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