A 41-year-old Indonesian man has been arrested for allegedly scamming aspiring Hollywood stars out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by impersonating top film executives — most of them female — in a wild fraud scheme that began as early as 2015.
Dubbed the “Con Queen of Hollywood,” Hargobind Tahilramani was arrested in Manchester, England on Nov. 26, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Investigators believe that Tahilramani, who was going by the name of Gobind Lal Tahil at the time of the arrest, impersonated hotshot executives — including former Sony chair Amy Pascal, former Paramount boss Sherry Lansing and “Star Wars” producer Kathleen Kennedy — to convince people who were starting out in the business to travel to Indonesia, where they would get work.
“The defendant has been arrested in the United Kingdom based on a request for his provisional arrest submitted by the United States with a view towards his extradition,” an FBI spokesman in told the Agence France-Presse.
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According to court documents unsealed Thursday, Tahilramani would “use fake accents and alter his voice to sound like a woman” to approach his victims with offers of lucrative jobs in Indonesia.
“Tahilramani and his co-conspirators would falsely claim to be, among others: well-known entertainment industry executives; individuals who worked with the entertainment industry executives; and family members of the entertainment industry executives,” the indictment stated.
They would “falsely claim that they wanted to hire the entertainment industry professionals to work on films and other projects purportedly based in Indonesia, when in fact, no such films or other projects existed.”
The jobs he allegedly offered included location scouting, research, as well as screenwriting gigs.
Once the victims arrived, they would be scammed out of money by paying for logistical services such as driving, with a promise that they would be reimbursed — which they weren’t.
The scam involved fake projects with plausible titles such as “The Master,” “Gotham City Sirens,” or “The Black Widow.” According to the indictment, on a few occasions the suspect threatened violence when victims “questioned Tahilramani’s assumed identity or tried to withdraw from an agreement.”
The arrest, during an early-morning raid, was the result of a years-long investigation by the FBI and private investigators from a New York-based corporate security firm, K2 Integrity.
“Two years ago, we identified our subject and began building a meticulous case against one individual. Now, we have reached one incredible outcome: justice for the victims,” K2 investigator Nicoletta Kotsianas said in a statement.
Tahilramani faces charges of wire fraud, identity theft and conspiracy.
The alleged con artist was the subject of the popular podcast “Chameleon: Hollywood Con Queen.” Investigative journalists Josh Dean and Vanessa Grigoriadis unmasked the identity of the suspect on the podcast’s ninth episode, which first aired on Nov. 19.
HarperCollins has secured the rights for a book about his life, titled “The Con Queen of Hollywood: The Epic Hunt for the Impersonator Who Stole Identities, Money, and Desires from Hollywood Royalty and Dreamers Alike.”