Key clue that exposed fugitive who faked death & fled the US to live in Scotland

A FUGITIVE accused of rape and fraud has given a tear-filled interview after he faked his own death and assumed a new identity abroad.

Rhode Island native Nicholas Rossi, 35 – who has gone by several other names – has been living in Scotland under the moniker Arthur Knight since 2017.

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The suspect, whose real name is Nicholas Alahverdian, reportedly fabricated his own death after pretending to have cancer and fled the U.S. to avoid numerous fraud and sexual assault charges that he’s facing across the country.

He told local news media in 2020 that he was suffering from late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma and had only weeks to live.

An obituary published in February of that year claimed that Rossi had died, The Associated Press reported.

Rossi was taken into custody in 2021 after he checked into a Scottish hospital with a severe case of COVID-19.

Last year, a British judge ruled that the suspect is in fact Rossi.

The judge was convinced by the man’s distinctive tattoos and the fact that his fingerprints matched those provided by police in the U.S.

Judge Norman McFadyen told the Edinburgh Sheriff Court: “I am ultimately satisfied on the balance of probabilities … that Mr. Knight is indeed Nicholas Rossi, the person sought for extradition by the United States.”

Rossi previously accused law enforcement of tattooing him while he was in a coma and secretly taking his fingerprints to frame him, AP reported.

Since then, the suspect has been fighting attempts to have him extradited.

Rossi has been charged for a 2008 rape in Utah and is wanted on fraud charges in Ohio.

Authorities in Rhode Island have also charged him with failing to register as a sex offender after he was convicted of a sexual crime in Ohio in 2008.

NBC managed to get an in-person interview with Rossi, which will air on tonight’s episode of Dateline at 9pm ET.

He continues to insist that he has never been to the U.S. and that he is Arthur Knight, an orphan from Ireland.

“I am not Nicholas Alahverdian,” he said with an English accent in a preview clip.

“I don’t know how to make this clearer.”

The suspect, who was accompanied by his wife Miranda Knight for the interview, claims that he’s still suffering from medical complications related to his Covid case and cannot walk.

During the interview, Rossi was wearing an oxygen mask which fogged up his glasses when he got worked up.

For years, Rossi was an outspoken critic of the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth, and Families – the organization that runs the state foster care system that he grew up in.

In a lawsuit filed against the department in 2011, Rossi claimed that he faced routine abuse within the system and was not cared for properly, WPRI reported.

Although the department has never admitted any wrongdoing, Rhode Island did waive $200,000 worth of Rossi’s medical debt in 2013.

The suspect is currently detained at HM Prison Edinburgh in Scotland.

He was due in court this week for a hearing on extradition but didn’t make it to the courtroom after an “altercation with court staff,” BBC reported.

His next hearing is set for May 4.

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