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Indonesia’s ‘Hollywood Con Queen’ loses UK extradition bid, faces US trial
Hargobind Tahilramani, accused of US$1 million fraud, failed to block US extradition on mental health and human rights grounds
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An Indonesian national dubbed the “Hollywood Con Queen” by the media for allegedly impersonating top female movie industry executives in a seven-year fraud on Tuesday lost his bid to block his extradition from Britain to stand trial in the US.
Hargobind Tahilramani is wanted in California on charges of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft for allegedly defrauding around 300 people out of a total of around US$1 million between 2013 and 2020.
The 45-year-old is accused of tricking people into travelling to Indonesia and paying exorbitant fees for non-existent film work, before he was arrested in a hotel in Manchester, England, in November 2020.
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Tahilramani’s extradition was approved by a judge and then British ministers in 2023, but he challenged the decision to send him to the US to stand trial, arguing that prison conditions would breach his human rights due to his mental health.
His lawyer, Edward Fitzgerald, told London’s High Court in April that Tahilramani, who has applied for asylum in Britain, was also at risk of being attacked in prison as a gay man.
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