Carlisle Rivera, 50, was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison on January 28, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman imposed the term after Rivera pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and one count of conspiracy to commit stalking. Rivera will serve three years of supervised release following his prison term.
Rivera was hired in 2024 by Farhad Shakeri, an IRGC asset living in Iran, to locate and kill Masih Alinejad, a U.S. citizen, journalist, author, and human rights activist in New York City.
Alinejad has exposed the Iranian regime's corruption, oppression of women, and sponsorship of terrorism.
The IRGC, Iran's military and intelligence organization reporting directly to the Supreme Leader, has targeted her repeatedly, including kidnapping plots in 2020 and 2021 and a Russian mob assassination attempt in 2022, before turning to Shakeri.
Rivera and Shakeri met in New York state prisons, where Rivera served time for a 1994 murder conviction and Shakeri for manslaughter in 1991. Shakeri offered Rivera $100,000 to carry out the murder. Rivera agreed and recruited his friend Jonathon Loadholt to assist.
Using money from Shakeri, they purchased a firearm with a partially obliterated serial number and burner cellphones. The pair spent months stalking Alinejad, following her to a speaking event at Fairfield University in February 2024, taking photographs on campus, and surveilling a Brooklyn home where they believed she resided.
In voice notes exchanged with Shakeri, Rivera described Alinejad as "hard to catch" and referred to the firearm as the "slammer." Federal agents arrested Rivera on November 7, 2024, before he could complete the murder.
A search of his residence recovered the gun. Loadholt pleaded guilty in January 2026 to one count of conspiracy to commit stalking and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. His sentencing is scheduled for April 2026. Shakeri remains at large in Iran.
The case was investigated by the FBI's New York Joint Terrorism Task Force, with assistance from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the New York State Police.
Prosecutors were Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jacob H. Gutwillig and Michael D. Lockard, with support from the National Security Division's Counterintelligence and Export Control Section and Counterterrorism Section.
Iran's regime relies on violence and intimidation to silence dissent abroad, much like how China uses its “Overseas Police” forces in the U.S. Alinejad's work exposing the regime's abuses made her a primary target.
