{"id":124162,"date":"2026-02-05T18:51:24","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T18:51:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/124162\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T18:51:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T18:51:24","slug":"prison-for-man-with-role-in-iranian-murder-for-hire-plot-staten-island-co-conspirator-awaits-fate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/124162\/","title":{"rendered":"Prison for man with role in Iranian murder-for-hire plot; Staten Island co-conspirator awaits fate"},"content":{"rendered":"

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Carlisle Rivera, a convicted murderer from Brooklyn, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for his role in a murder-for-hire plot targeting journalist, human rights activist Masih Alinejad<\/a>, an outspoken critic of the Iranian government.<\/p>\n

The plot was directed by the Government of Iran, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice. In addition to the prison sentence, Rivera will also face three years of supervised release.<\/p>\n

According to federal authorities, Rivera previously pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and one count of conspiracy to commit stalking. He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman for the Southern District of New York on Wednesday, Jan. 28.<\/p>\n

Rivera\u2019s co-conspirator, Jonathan Loadholt, a Staten Island resident, will be sentenced in April<\/a> after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit stalking and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering in January, according to authorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Government of Iran, a sponsor of terrorism, assassination, and espionage around the globe, has engaged in a campaign of assassination plots in the United States and abroad targeting those who oppose the regime,\u201d said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton for the Southern District of New York.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Government of Iran hired Rivera through an associate living in Iran to locate and murder Masih Alinejad in cold blood, right here in New York City. The Government of Iran has long sought to murder Ms. Alinejad, a U.S. citizen residing in New York City, because of her efforts to stand up to the Iranian regime and expose its discriminatory treatment of women, corruption, and human rights abuses,\u201d said Clayton. \u201cToday\u2019s sentence should be a warning to anyone who would cast their lot with the brutal Iranian regime and seek to do their murderous bidding, especially on American soil: You will be stopped, you will be arrested, and you will be brought to justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rivera was arrested on Nov. 7, 2024, before he could kill Alinejad. At his residence, law enforcement authorities found, among other things, a firearm with a partially obliterated serial number, as indicated in the release.<\/p>\n

According to federal authorities, Rivera was hired by Farhad Shakeri to murder Alinejad on orders from high-ranking members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The IRGC reports directly to the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran and is the government\u2019s primary instrument for funneling financial and lethal aid to proxy terror groups in the Middle East, the U.S. Department of Justice said.<\/p>\n

This is not the first time the IRGC has attempted to target Alinejad. In 2020 and 2021, Iranian intelligence officials and assets planned to kidnap Alinejad, according to federal authorities. Then, in 2022, the IRGC hired members of the Russian Mob to kill Alinejad. It was after those failed efforts that the IRGC turned to Shakeri, the U.S. Department of Justice added.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Shakeri, an IRGC asset, contacted Rivera and offered him $100,000 to locate and kill Alinejad, which Rivera accepted, according to authorities.<\/p>\n

The two men first met when they were incarcerated in the New York State prison system after Rivera\u2019s conviction for murder in 1994 and Shakeri\u2019s conviction for manslaughter in 1991.<\/p>\n

It was after he agreed to the offer that Rivera recruited Loadholt to assist in the plot, authorities said.<\/p>\n

Federal authorities state that using Shakeri\u2019s money, Rivera and Loadholt purchased a firearm and \u201cburner\u201d cellphones. Authorities claim the pair then spent several months trying to find and murder their target, including by following Alinejad to a public speaking event and repeatedly stalking the Brooklyn residence where Shakeri believed she lived.<\/p>\n

According to federal authorities, the co-conspirators exchanged messages about their progress and photographs relating to the plot. In or around February 2024, Rivera and Loadholt messaged about an inbound payment from Shakeri before traveling to Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut, where Alinejad was scheduled to appear. There, authorities say they took pictures on campus.<\/p>\n

Later, in April 2024, the co-conspirators exchanged a series of voice notes discussing the ongoing efforts to murder Alinejad, as stated by the U.S. Department of Justice. In one such note, Rivera told Shakeri that Alinejad was \u201chard to catch, bro. And because she hard to catch, there ain\u2019t gonna be no simple pull up, unless there[\u2019s] the luck of the draw.\u201d In another note, Rivera referred to the \u201cslammer,\u201d meaning a firearm he had obtained to kill Alinejad, according to authorities.<\/p>\n

Although Rivera has been sentenced and Loadholt awaits his sentencing, Shakeri remains at large.<\/p>\n

As previously shared<\/a> by the U.S. Department of Justice, President Donald Trump, two Jewish American citizens living in New York City and Israeli tourists in Sri Lanka were among the other targets assigned to Shakeri.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Iranian government enlisted a convicted killer to stalk and murder an American journalist and activist, Masih Alinejad, in an effort to forever silence her vocal criticism of its regime,\u201d said FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle, Jr. \u201cCarlisle Rivera served as a hired gun to facilitate the political assassination attempt ordered by an international adversary. May today\u2019s lengthy sentence reflect the FBI\u2019s unwavering stance against any domestic or foreign actor seeking to target our nation\u2019s residents for nefarious agendas.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWalking out of the U.S. courthouse, right after my would-be assassin was sentenced to 15 years in prison, I came across images of beautiful, unarmed women and men who had been massacred by the regime,\u201d Alinejad said in a Jan. 28 post on X<\/a>. \u201cIt broke my heart. I want the same protection for the people of Iran. They are not only fighting for themselves; they are also standing against a terrorist regime that threatens U.S. national security. That is why I am calling on President Trump to give the Iranian people the same protection.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Carlisle Rivera, a convicted murderer from Brooklyn, has been sentenced to 15 years in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-124162","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}