Man accused of impersonating FBI agent at Sacramento motel now facing federal charges

The FBI doesn’t really care for it when someone pretends to be one of its agents.

That is the message the agency is delivering to Daniel Arushanov, who is named in a criminal complaint filed Monday morning in federal court for allegedly impersonating an agent and later retaliating against a witness who reported him.

Arushanov, 27, originally was arrested Feb. 11 by Sacramento sheriff’s deputies after allegedly posing as an FBI agent and asking a desk clerk at the Red Roof Inn & Suites on Watt Avenue to show him the roster of guests. He was booked into jail on a misdemeanor count of impersonating an officer and later released.

Now, federal officials say Arushanov made the situation exponentially worse by returning to the motel after being released and threatening a witness there.

“You were the guy who identified me the other day with the cops and are the reason I went to jail,” Arushanov allegedly told the clerk, according to an FBI affidavit filed in court documents Monday. “I am going to come back and f------ shoot you and the f------ desk clerk for putting me in jail.

“I also know where you live.”

Arushanov was arrested again Friday afternoon and booked into the Sacramento County Main Jail, where he is in custody without bail on a federal hold, online records show.

His latest troubles began with a 3:43 a.m. visit on Feb. 11 to the Red Roof Inn, where he allegedly entered the building wearing all black clothes, black boots and a green camouflage hat and claimed to be an FBI agent, court records say.

“Arushanov then demanded that he be given the guest list,” court documents say. “The employee handed Arushanov the hotel guest list.

“Arushanov circled three names on the guest list. Arushanov stated that he was working undercover and was running an underage prostitution sting at the hotel and was going to have a couple of agents meet him across the street along with the (sheriff’s office).”

The employee asked to see his identification, and Arushanov told him he could call his boss, then left for 10 minutes, the affidavit says. He then returned with an iPad and gave the FBI telephone number to the employee, who called the number and was told “that the FBI was not, in fact, running an operation at the hotel,” the affidavit says.

The employee then said he was calling the police and Arushanov “then reached into his jacket with his left hand and unzipped a pocket,” and the employee saw what appeared to be the butt of a black firearm, court documents say.

Arushanov then left in a black Lexus, court documents say. Some time later, a sheriff’s dispatcher got a call from someone claiming to be an FBI agent and wanting to know about shots being fired at the motel, documents say.

Deputies went to the motel and eventually produced a “six pack” photo lineup for the employee to review, but he was unable to pick Arushanov out of the photos, court documents say.

Deputies then ran the license late of the Lexus he was seen leaving in, and found that the plate number had been entered in a sheriff’s license plate reader earlier at an apartment complex on Edison Avenue. There, they found Arushanov getting something out of the car trunk and detained him, court documents say.

Arushanov then gave deputies permission to search his car and apartment, and they found a green camouflage hat and black jacket but no firearms.

Deputies then brought the employee of the motel to the scene, where he identified Arushanov as the man who had claimed to be an FBI agent, court documents say.

He was arrested and booked into jail, but later released.

Two days later, deputies were again called to the Red Roof Inn, where the employee told them Arushanov had returned with two other people and threatened him, hitting his car windshield and kicking his car door.

“Victim 1 felt that Arushanov was trying to intimidate him as a witness,” according to the affidavit, which says that surveillance from the motel later was retrieved that showed Arushanov at the motel on Feb. 11 wearing the cap and black leather jacket.

Federal court documents indicate the Red Roof Inn incident is not Arushanov’s first encounter with the FBI.

An FBI affidavit filed in federal court in New Mexico in January 2017 says that Arushanov was arrested inside the University of New Mexico student union on Nov. 6, 2016, by police responding to a report of a man carrying a handgun.

“Arushanov was observed by the officers wearing a neck tie, bows in his hair, an ‘I voted’ sticker and carrying a handgun in a holster in plain view on his right hip,” the affidavit says. “Arushanov was placed under arrest by UNM police for the misdemeanor charge of carrying a deadly weapon on campus.”

Court documents say the .40-caliber semiautomatic pistol was loaded with nine rounds and that police found a four-door Mercedes belonging to him parked illegally a short distance away in a disabled parking spot. Inside the car, officers found a shotgun and 59 rounds of ammunition, court documents say.

The court documents also say that when police asked Arushanov why he was carrying a weapon on campus he replied, “I was just testing your response.”

Later, he added, “you never know what you are going to get into,” court documents say.

By then, authorities had determined Arushanov also was the subject of a protective order issued out of a Sacramento Superior Court family law case forbidding him from possessing weapons or ammunition or having contact with his ex-wife.

He pleaded guilty to a count of possessing a firearm while under a domestic violence restraining order, court documents say, and was sentenced to 212 days in custody and supervised release until Oct. 2, 2019.

While he was still under supervised release, his case was transferred to federal court in Sacramento on Feb. 11, 2019, exactly one year before he is alleged to have entered the Red Roof Inn.

The charges in the latest criminal complaint could result in a sentence of up to three years for impersonating an agent and up to 20 years for witness retaliation.

This story was originally published March 2, 2020 at 12:07 PM.