Los Angeles (AFP)

Suspected con man charged in the United States for extracting hundreds of thousands of dollars from film professionals posing as influential women in Hollywood has been arrested in Britain, AFP told AFP the US Federal Police.

“Hollywood con queen” is actually a 41-year-old Indonesian man named Hargobind Tahilramani, a virtuoso at imitating female voices and accents.

He had been wanted around the world since his indictment by a California court in November 2019.

The American authorities will ask the British justice system to extradite the suspect, said an FBI spokesperson in San Diego.

Among the Hollywood executives whose identity Tahilramani has usurped include Kathleen Kennedy, big boss of Lucasfilm (Star Wars saga), the former head of Sony Amy Pascal and the former CEO of Paramount studios Sherry Lansing.

The ex-wife of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, Wendi, was also reportedly imitated by the suspect, who also sometimes posed as male executives.

According to the indictment consulted by AFP, film professionals in different specialties were contacted by the alleged scammer and were offered prestigious and lucrative employment opportunities for imaginary projects.

The only condition is to go to Indonesia for scouting, documentation or preparatory work for the scenario.

Upon their arrival, the victims were relieved of their dollars at the slightest opportunity by accomplices who levied "transport costs" and other prohibitive advances supposed to be later reimbursed by the production.

Fools never saw the color of their money again and those who complained or expressed doubts were explicitly threatened by Tahilramani, who intimidated them by sending them pictures of their children or spoke of "dismembering" them, according to the act of charge.

The scam would have started in 2013 and would have continued until this summer, the band having adapted its techniques to the health crisis by asking its targets to pay money for non-existent "training videos".

According to the specialized media Hollywood Reporter, the suspected crook was arrested last week in Manchester (north-west of England), with the help of a private investigation company, K2 Integrity.

"We are immensely proud of the resources of our team of investigators (...) to fight and unmask this blackmailer and put an end to this fraud by imposture", wrote in a press release to AFP the co-founder and director of the firm, Jules Kroll.

The identity of "the queen of the con" had long remained a mystery until the firm K2 Integrity announced last year that it had discovered that it was a man.

The HarperCollins publishing house has already bought the rights to this incredible story, which will be written by Scott Johnson, former reporter for the Hollywood Reporter.

© 2020 AFP