Social media is a wild place an an Instagram star has recently been arrested by the FBI.
A Las Vegas entrepreneur/Instagram star was arrested in June of 2023 on suspicion of murder-for-hire.
Fereidoun Khalilian, who runs an Instagram account with over 135,000 followers and brands himself as an entertainment agent, was arrested by the FBI on June 22.
According to a criminal complaint from the FBI, Khalilian was accused of plotting to have someone murdered for unspecified reasons. The target of the murder-for-hire was alerted to the plot and reported it to the authorities.
Khalilian is known to present an image of wealth on his social media page, which includes pictures of him with various celebrities. He has referred to himself as “Prince Fred”, claiming a royal lineage from the Middle East, though the target of the murder-for-hire plot claims Khalilian got his wealth through deception.
The target of the plot used to work for Khalilian in 2009 as an IT specialist for his telemarketing company, which was shut down by the Federal Trade Commission over fraud allegations.
Khalilian was later contacted by the target, who was researching and producing a documentary on Khalilian’s life. During this time, Khalilian threatened and was recorded calling the target with threats involving mutilation and death.
On March 17, Khalilian’s former bodyguard called the target and revealed Khalilian was paying him $20,000 to kill the producer. The bodyguard revealed he had sent Khalilian an image of the target lying face down in a pool of blood with his hands tied behind his back, though it was a fake image and the target was not dead.
The target reported the murder-for-hire scheme to the FBI on March 21, which then looked into the bodyguard’s messages, payments, and recordings of his and Khalilian’s phone calls.
Khalilian’s trial is scheduled for early September in California, and he is due back for a status check on Monday.
The internet is a wild place that creates some crazy people.
