NEW YORK — A personal assistant was convicted Monday of killing and dismembering his former boss after stealing an estimated $400,000 from him, the Manhattan district attorney said.
A jury found Tyrese Haspil, 25, guilty of the 2020 death of Fahim Saleh, 33, whose decapitated, armless body was found by a cousin who had gone to his luxury Manhattan apartment to check on him.
Haspil was arrested days later at a swanky Airbnb that authorities say he rented with stolen money for his girlfriend’s birthday party.
Haspil handled finances and personal affairs for Saleh, whose ventures included Gokada, a motorcycle motorcycle service in Africa. Within months of being hired in 2018, investigators said Haspil began funneling money into fake accounts using two separate schemes, prosecutors said.
He resigned after a year but continued to embezzle money even after Saleh confronted him about one of the schemes in January 2020 and made Haspil repay $35,000 over two years to avoid criminal charges.
Afraid that Saleh would discover the ongoing theft, Haspil devised an elaborate murder plot, first posing as a potential buyer for a vacant apartment across the street from Saleh’s home so he could install a camera to monitor Saleh’s building, according to the prosecutors.
When Saleh returned home from a run on the morning of July 13, 2020, Haspil followed him into the elevator to his seventh-floor apartment, shocked him with a Taser and stabbed him to death, prosecutors said. He returned the next day to dismember the body with a electric saw, who eventually died, authorities said. While Haspil was shopping for a battery charger, the victim’s cousin arrived and discovered the body, authorities said.
“Tyrese Haspil tragically took the life of Mr. Saleh — a man who came from a close-knit immigrant family and followed his passions to become a successful entrepreneur,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement . “Today’s verdict can provide some comfort to Mr. Saleh’s loved ones as they continue to mourn his loss.”
Haspil’s sentencing on murder and other charges is scheduled for September.