NYC man hired by Iranian regime to ‘stalk and murder’ dissident journalist sentenced

A New York City man was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison Wednesday for his role in a murder-for-hire plot orchestrated by the Iranian regime. 

Jonathan Loadholt, of Staten Island, previously pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit stalking and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering for taking part in the scheme to kill journalist and human rights advocate Masih Alinejad. 

Alinejad, an Iranian national who fled the country in 2009 and became a US citizen in 2019, had been targeted by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for publicly encouraging Iranian women to defy the repressive regime’s rule that women wear headscarves. 

“Jonathan Loadholt served as a hired gun to stalk, surveil, and ultimately assassinate Masih Alinejad — a United States citizen — on behalf of the IRGC,” FBI Assistant Director in Charge James Barnacle Jr., said in a statement. “The FBI New York Joint Terrorism Task Force disrupted and arrested him before he could carry out his plan.  

“The FBI will squash all attempts to silence critics of oppressive regimes on American soil.”

Loadholt, 37, is the second defendant to be sentenced in what the Justice Department described as a “stalk and murder” plot against Alinejad. 

Carlisle Rivera was sentenced to 15 years in prison in January after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire.  

The would-be hitmen were offered $100,000 by Farhad Shakeri, who reported directly to IRGC leaders, to purchase weapons, conduct surveillance on a Brooklyn home they believed to be Alinejad’s, follow her to a February 2024 speaking event at Fairfield University in Connecticut and ultimately kill her, which they failed at doing.

At one point during their nine-month long surveillance efforts, Rivera allegedly complained to Shakeri: “This b—h is hard to catch, bro.”

“The Government of Iran has repeatedly attempted to locate and murder Masih Alinejad, right here in New York City,” US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton said in a statement. “The Government of Iran tried to silence Ms. Alinejad because of her efforts to stand up to the Iranian regime and expose its discriminatory treatment of women, corruption, and human rights abuses.”

“While this plot was directed from Iran, the would-be assassins were American citizens who agreed to kill Ms. Alinejad for money — out of greed,” Clayton added. “Today’s sentence should be a serious warning to anyone who tries to profit by carrying out the wishes of a hostile foreign regime on United States soil.” 

Shakeri, who remains at large, is also accused of being directed by the IRGC to orchestrate a plot to assassinate President Trump. 

US officials say Iran has been pursuing assassination plots against Trump as vengeance for the death of Qasem Soleimani, head of the Iranian regime’s elite Quds Force, who was killed in a drone strike ordered by the president in 2020.

Trump told NewsNation in January that he had left instructions that if any Iranian plot to kill him was successful, “the whole country is going to get blown up.”