How feds choreographed elaborate fake murder to nab LA developer
LOS ANGELES — Arthur Aslanian wasn't taking any chances when he met his employee, Sesar Rivera, on the side of a road earlier this month.
Only after patting Rivera down to check if he was wearing a wire and making him leave his phone in Aslanian's pickup truck did he look at the photograph Rivera had brought.
It was a gruesome image of a dead man who had been shot in the face.
The real estate developer studied the photo to make sure it was the proof he wanted. "That's him, man, that's him," he said.
Rivera asked Aslanian what to do with the photo.
"F— shred it," Aslanian responded.
Aslanian left the roadside meeting believing the photo confirmed that a plan he set in motion had succeeded, according to an account of the meeting provided by the U.S. attorney's office. The man in the photo was a banker who had been fighting to recoup about $3 million Aslanian owed him. Instead of paying, prosecutors allege, Aslanian had hired an assassin.
Aslanian, however, had just been fooled.
Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had been tracking him for months and had nabbed Rivera weeks
