The Metropolitan Police Department’s website provides a list of helpful tips on how to safely conduct online transactions: Use public and well-lit meeting spots, research the other person, share your plan with a friend, and avoid advance payments, for example.
And in January, following a social media transaction that turned violent, MPD urged residents to use caution and reminded them of the Safe Exchange Zones located at the various police district stations around town.
Turns out, the department actually should have warned the public about one of its own officers.
Officer Christopher Bijan Shahsavar was charged in February 2025 with four felonies after he scammed someone in Pennsylvania during a transaction on Facebook Marketplace.
No violence took place, but according to a news report from North Penn Now Community News, a Pennsylvania man agreed to pay Shahsavar $2,500 for a PlayStation 5 Pro 30th Anniversary Edition. After receiving the money via Venmo to his handle “@mister-anabolic,” according to the article, Shahsavar blocked the victim on Facebook and Venmo.
Upper Gwynedd Police interviewed Shahsavar on Feb. 17, 2025, and he allegedly “confessed his involvement in the theft and never had the intention to deliver the product,” North Penn Now reports. “Police said Shahsavar admitted to closing all lines of communication with the victim by deleting his Facebook account.”
Arik Benari, an attorney at the Pennsylvania firm that represented Shahsavar, tells City Paper the whole thing was a misunderstanding. He says Shahsavar preordered the PS5 and essentially sold his place in line to the man in Pennsylvania. When the gaming console never showed up, Benari says, the victim called police before Shahsavar could repay him.
When confronted by police in February 2025, according to North Penn Now, Shahsavar allegedly told officers he would immediately repay the victim.
But it does not appear that happened. The criminal court docket in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, indicates the court ordered Shahsavar to pay restitution to the victim. He paid another $2,411 in court costs to resolve the case, including a $176 “expungement fee” and a $300 “booking center fee,” according to the court docket.
The docket also indicates that in July 2025 Shahsavar entered into a deferred prosecution agreement, known as an accelerated rehabilitative disposition, which says if he repays the victim and avoids arrest for 18 months, prosecutors would dismiss the case. He was also ordered to complete 24 hours of community service. It’s not clear from the public docket if he has done so.
Following an internal investigation, MPD held an adverse action hearing on Feb. 6, where Shahsavar challenged the department’s decision to fire him. Adverse action hearings are quasi-judicial proceedings where a panel of three MPD supervisors hear from witnesses and consider evidence as they decide whether to grant leniency.
City Paper was unable to attend the hearing, and it’s unclear whether the panel issued any decision last week. The department does not publicize its final disciplinary decisions, and Officer Lee Lepe, a spokesperson for the department, declined to comment on personnel matters. Shahsavar is on indefinite suspension while his appeal plays out.
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