UK judge rules Hollywood ‘Con Queen’, an Indonesian man, can be sent to US
- Suspected con artist Hargobind Tahilraman used fake accents and altered his voice impersonate Hollywood moguls to defraud victims
- A UK judge ruled that the 43-year-old Indonesian man, who has been held in Britain since 2020, could be extradited to the United States
A suspected con artist who allegedly impersonated top female Hollywood executives to swindle wide-eyed aspiring stars out of hundreds of thousands of dollars can be extradited to the US, a British judge ruled Tuesday.
Dubbed the “Con Queen of Hollywood”, suspect Hargobind Tahilramani, 43, led investigators on a years-long, global manhunt so improbable it has even been chronicled in a book, coincidentally published this week.
Tahilramani, an Indonesian, is wanted in the United States for offences including wire fraud and identity theft, and in a ruling handed down Tuesday UK judge Paul Goldspring approved his extradition.
Sitting at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London, he sent the case to interior minister Suella Braverman for a final decision.
Last year lawyers representing the US said Tahilramani was the “mastermind” of a conspiracy to defraud more than 300 people out of more than one million US dollars between 2013 and August 2020.
Among the Hollywood moguls he allegedly impersonated, over the phone or in text messages, were Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy, former Sony movie chief Amy Pascal and ex-Paramount boss Sherry Lansing.