'Con Queen of Hollywood' accused of duping actors arrested in UK

FBI alleges suspect altered his voice to impersonate female film executives

The suspect is accused of impersonating female executives including Wendy Deng, Kathleen Kennedy, and Sherry Lansing. Getty Images

A suspected con artist who allegedly impersonated top female Hollywood executives to dupe aspiring stars out of hundreds of thousands of dollars has been arrested in the UK.

Dubbed the "Con Queen of Hollywood", the suspect would "alter his voice to sound like a woman" and allegedly promised movie projects to would-be stars.

He was unmasked in an unsealed court indictment on Thursday as Hargobind Tahilramani, a 41-year-old Indonesian man.

The suspect led investigators on a years-long, global manhunt so improbable it has even been optioned for a book deal.

"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 San Diego, California told AFP.

Among the Hollywood moguls Mr Tahilramani allegedly impersonated were Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy, former Sony movie chief Amy Pascal, and ex-Paramount boss Sherry Lansing.

Wendi Murdoch, the former wife of Rupert Murdoch, was also allegedly impersonated by the master of accents, along with various male movie executives.

Victims were approached with offers of lucrative showbiz jobs and instructed to travel to Indonesia for tasks including location scouting, research and drafting screenplays, according to court documents filed in California.

Mr Tahilramani would "use fake accents and alter his voice to sound like a woman," the documents state.

On arrival, the victims were allegedly billed for US currency at every turn by Mr Tahilramani and his co-conspirators, with the promised movie projects transpiring to be entirely fictional, and their expenses never reimbursed.

If targets complained or expressed doubt, Mr Tahilramani would sometimes threaten to "dismember" them, the documents state.

The scam began as early as 2013, and continued despite global Covid-19 travel bans to this August, when victims were instead asked to shell out for non-existent training videos.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Mr Tahilramani was arrested by Manchester police last week with the assistance of private investigators from K2 Integrity.

In a statement to AFP, co-founder Jules Kroll said K2 had helped US, British and Indonesian authorities in "bringing the individual known as the 'Con Queen of Hollywood' to justice."

Mr Tahilramani -- also known as Gobind Lal Tahil -- had already been "unmasked" last month as the likely suspect in the bizarre fraud by investigative podcast "Chameleon: Hollywood Con Queen."

That came after K2 last year issued a statement declaring the "Con Queen" was a man.