Paris Hilton’s ex-business partner ‘Prince Fred’ is charged in murder for hire plot for ‘offering bodyguard $20,000 to kill filmmaker but was betrayed when hired killer staged hit job with fake blood photographs

Paris Hilton's ex-business partner and infamous con man, 'Prince Fred', has been charged with murder-for-hire after offering his bodyguard money to kill a director.

Fereidoun Khalilian, better known as Prince Fred, was arrested in June for ordering the murder of a filmmaker who planned to expose the con artist in a documentary.

Khalilian is a former nightclub owner from Florida who opened Club Paris in 2005 with the queen of socialites. In addition to cozying up with Paris Hilton, the self-proclaimed prince claimed he was Middle Eastern royalty for working with other stars like Demi. Lovato, Usher and Drake.

On Wednesday, prosecutors announced that Khalilian, 51, was charged with orchestrating a murder-for-hire plot after the “prince” offered his bodyguard, Michael Sherwood, $20,000 to kill his filmmaker enemy Juan Esco.

A 53-page complaint was filed against the social ivy scammer in the U.S. District Court of Nevada.

Prosecutors alleged that Khalilian paid Sherwood to kill Esco to prevent the release of the filmmaker's damning documentary, which exposed Khalilian's long list of lies, frauds and scams.

Rebecca Levy, federal public defender, is representing Khalilian in court. Her office did not respond when DailyMail.com requested comment.

Around February 2022, Khalilian told his security guard that Esco was “trying to ruin his life with this documentary,” so Sherwood offered to talk to both men to avoid further conflict.

Sherwood grew suspicious of his boss's violent mood swings and became alarmed by “Fred's” fixation on Esco – who the security guard decided was “not a bad guy.”

Sherwood initially agreed to Khalilian's offer of $20,000 and instead went to Esco to warn him of 'Prince Fred's' intentions and the two teamed up against the con artist to stage the fake murder.

On March 17, Sherwood took photos of Esco lying “dead” on the ground with a pool of blood around him, which he sent to Khalilian, who responded by immediately sending his security guard money.

Khalilian sent them money via Cash App with the caption “for my guys.” Six days later, he sent more money to Sherwood to pay the people hired to “get rid of his body.”

Sherwood said Khalilian paid out a total of $12,500.

The scammer didn't stop there — he later placed a phone call to Sherwood, where he told the bodyguard about others he believed had worked with Esco and that he reportedly “would like to hang out with,” police said. WashingtonPost.

Khalilian and Sherwood met on June 12 and the scammer thanked his employee for committing the crime on his behalf and allegedly told him 'I wanted to kill him myself. I bought a gun, I came to LA. You saved me from myself.”

The scammer was arrested by the FBI shortly afterwards at a Dunkin Donuts in Las Vegas – and he remained jailed while his case was investigated.

He was originally charged with 'murder for hire' and was denied bail because he was a flight risk and had the ability and means to leave the US.

According to court records, the 51-year-old “prince” had lived in Miami since 1989 and appeared on the Federal Trade Commission's radar a number of times for his involvement in various fraudulent schemes.

In one alleged fraud, he was accused of selling online gambling software to a Native American tribe in Oklahoma for $9 million. After the software was found to be dysfunctional, the tribe asked for their money back, but was denied.

In the early 2000s, he was banned from all travel-related telemarketing and ordered to pay $185,000 to consumers after making fraudulent pitches for travel packages.

According to an account filed in court by an FBI agent, Khalilian met Esco in Miami in 2009 while working at a computer repair shop.

The agent suggested that Khalilian was “wearing expensive jewelry and claiming to be a billionaire” at the time. He drove a Range Rover and claimed he also had a Lamborghini and a Bugatti in his mansion.”

After being impressed with the quality of Esco's work as a technician, Khalilian invited him to work for his telemarketing company, which operated under the name My Car Solutions.

A complaint filed by the Federal Trade Commission in June 2010 alleged that My Car Solutions would sell motorists false “extended” warranty coverage for their cars by claiming they were calling from the manufacturer or dealer.

Esco told the FBI agent that he quickly became aware of the fraudulent nature of My Car Solutions and felt it was preying on the elderly by selling them false and unnecessary car warranties.

The company was eventually raided, fined $4 million and closed down.

Although Khalilian wanted Esco to continue working for him, he declined and moved to Los Angeles from Miami in 2013 to work in the film industry.

Six years later, in 2019, the couple randomly ran into each other in Los Angeles, court records show, and Khalilian introduced himself to his friends as a prince from Dubai.

After researching Khalilian, the filmmaker became intrigued by the extensive personal story that the 'Prince' would offer to various friends and acquaintances.

He convinced Khalilian to make a documentary about him, but failed to mention that this would actually be an exposé portraying him as a fraud.

Esco interviewed Khalilian's former business partners, alleged victims and bodyguards.

The bodyguards said in those interviews that Khalilian would make them wear fake Secret Service pins and fake earphones that were not connected to radios to give the illusion that he was an important diplomat.

Eventually, the conman began to feel that this documentary would be damaging to his reputation, and Esco began to get on his nerves.