Jonathan Loadholt, 37, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison on Wednesday for his participation in a murder-for-hire scheme orchestrated by the Iranian government against an Iranian-born journalist and activist, according to the US Justice Department.
Masih Alinejad, the target of the plot, fled Iran following the contentious 2009 presidential election and ensuing protest movement. She became a US citizen in 2019.
She has been an outspoken human rights advocate and critic of Iran’s current regime, and is one of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps‘s main targets, according to the Justice Department.
Latest of several attempts to kidnap, murder Masih Alinejad
In 2020 and 2021, Iranian intelligence officials and assets plotted to kidnap Alinejad back to Iran, then, in 2022, the IRGC hired members of the Russian Mafia to murder Alinejad.
When these plans failed, the IRGC turned to Farhad Shakeri in Tehran, who hired New York City resident and convicted murderer Carlisle Rivera in 2024. According to the DOJ, Shakeri offered Rivera $100,000 to carry out the directive. Rivera then recruited Loadholt, also a New York City local, to help him with the scheme.
For the next several months, Rivera and Loadholt stalked Alinejad and prepared their murder plans, but Loadholt was arrested in November 2024 before the two could carry out their plans. Rivera was eventually arrested, as well.
In January 2026, Rivera was sentenced to 15 years in prison by Judge Liman, after previously having pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire.
“Jonathan Loadholt served as a hired gun to stalk, surveil, and ultimately assassinate Masih Alinejad, a United States citizen, on behalf of the IRGC,” said FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle Jr. “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.”
