Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Suspected pimp’s brutality included waterboarding of prostitute, police say

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Arman Izadi

The victim stood stripped down to her underwear in the shower stall begging for her life as the man she was trying to leave beat her, tortured her with waterboarding and choked her.

The only thing that saved her life was a promise to have his name tattooed on her neck that night. The show of loyalty gave her a moment of freedom to alert her mother.

Her last words were: “He’s trying to kill me.”

Those were the details outlined in a Metro Police arrest report following the arrest of alleged pimp Arman Izadi. A joint police task force arrested Izadi Wednesday for his involvement in pandering women, including the victim, whose name was redacted in the report.

The report indicates the following occurred:

The victim met Izadi through a mutual friend at XS nightclub. The two became close, quickly developing a relationship through chats on the phone and through Facebook and Twitter. At the time, the victim was hoping to land a job as a paralegal and to attend law school.

Izadi told her she could make her tuition for law school working for him as a prostitute. The victim wavered until Halloween night, when Izadi surprised her with a text.

“Well you’re working tonight!” he texted.

And like that, she began working as a prostitute for Izadi.

She estimates that she made $20,000 to $30,000 that night, and about $100,000 in a year. While Izadi identified himself as a casino nightclub promoter, police discovered that his major source of income came from trafficking women.

He pandered at least one other woman in addition to the victim, sending her to various clubs to find people interested to “buy her time.” The second woman said at one point he sent her to Washington, D.C., to meet a client, and that half their earnings went to Izadi.

After a period of time working for Izadi, the victim’s relationship with him began to deteriorate. He grew increasingly disrespectful and demeaning toward her. Meanwhile, the work began to take a toll. She decided she no longer wanted to work as a prostitute, and attempted to leave for the first time.

But when she told Izadi, he became irate.

He yelled at her at a nightclub, and when she left to his apartment to collect her belongings he texted her saying: “You’d better leave Vegas because I’m going to come after you.”

After several messages, he asked her to meet him at the residence. When she agreed to meet him, he smashed her face against a wall and applied pressure to her head. He then told her she had to pay a “Tax” of $13,000 before she left and dragged her to a Bank of America.

Even as she grew fearful of Izadi, she returned to live at his house until she could no longer take it. When she told Izadi she wanted to leave for a second time, he placed a knife in his hand and dared her to take it.

“I’m gonna hand you this knife, take it, because you’re going to need it!” He said.

That’s when he took her to the bathroom where he tortured and beat her as she begged for her life for one hour. He turned the water on and alternated it between scalding hot and ice cold as it hit her body and wrapped the removable shower head cord around her neck choking her and spraying her nostrils with water.

She was subject to waterboarding and when she began to black out, he would slap her face to make sure she was coherent. He suffocated her with a pillow, and threatened to throw her off the balcony. At one point he ran a knife down the length of her body.

The victim was only able to make it stop with a show of loyalty — offering to tattoo his name on her neck. At that moment, Izadi took the victim and a second woman to Kings Ink, where they had his name tattooed in Persian script on their necks.

The moment bought the victim time, and she regained some trust. Later that evening, he left her alone to get some food and the victim was finally able to escape, free from Izadi’s clutches.

The victim contacted police on Dec. 18, and interviewed with an officer two days later. Her wrists were still bruised, her elbows and knees still swollen, and her thigh still had a five-inch cut.

They were the last remnants of her fight to escape.

After a police investigation, Izadi was arrested and booked into Clark County Detention Center.

He faces one count of pandering of an adult with force, transporting an adult for prostitution, accepting earnings of a prostitute, kidnap first degree with a deadly weapon, substantial battery with a weapon, and coercion with force. He also faces two counts of domestic battery by strangulation and two counts of extortion.

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