The British justice approved on Tuesday the extradition of Hargobind Tahilramanian alleged con man known as “the con queen of hollywood” for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from movie professionals by posing as influential women in Hollywood.
The man, of Indonesian origin, is an excellent mimic of female voices and accents. He is accused of defrauding more than 300 people, including actors, directors and photographers, out of more than $1 million between 2013 and 2020.
Now, the British Home Secretary, Suella Bravermanit will have to decide whether or not to order the extradition of Hargobind Tahilramani.
The AFP contacted his ministry, but it indicated that it would not comment on an individual case.
Hargobind Tahilramani was arrested in 2020 in England after his indictment, in 2019, by a court of California.
Tahilramani posed as Hollywood leaders such as Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm (producer of the Star Wars saga), the former head of Sony, Amy Pascal, and the former executive director of Paramount studios, Sherry Lansing.
She would also have imitated the ex-wife of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, Wendi, and sometimes also impersonated male executives.
According to the indictment consulted by AFP, the alleged fraudster contacted film professionals, to whom he proposed prestigious and lucrative employment opportunities for imaginary projects. The only condition was to travel to Indonesia for locations, documentation or preparation of the script.
Upon arrival, accomplices of the fraudster extorted money from the victims under the pretext of “transportation expenses” or other prohibitive advances, which the production would reimburse them later.
But the unsuspecting did not see their money again and those who complained or expressed doubts were explicitly threatened by Tahilramani, who intimidated them by sending them photos of their children or spoke of “dismembering[los]”, according to the indictment.
To oppose his extradition to the United States, his lawyers argued that the conditions of detention in that country would violate human rights and that the prisoner’s health would suffer, since he would probably be almost isolated.
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