Here’s what’s known about the Iranian arrested in Palm Beach with $22,000 and a machete
Though no arrest report has been made public, here’s what public records and police say about Masoud Yarieilzoleh, the Iranian national arrested Friday night in Palm Beach about four miles from President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
▪ Palm Beach police say Yarieilzoleh was carrying two white envelopes, each with $10,000 in $100 bills. They confiscated a total of $22,028.23, according to photos from Palm Beach police.
▪ Yarieilzoleh was arrested near Flagler Memorial Bridge after police responded to do a welfare check on someone sleeping in a Bradley Park gazebo. The probable cause affidavit says that was Yarieilzoleh, who produced a Washington driver’s license and a U.S. permanent resident card. When he sat up, police found a machete under a mat. He also had an axe and two knives, each with a 4.5-inch blade, one of which was serrated. Police spokesman Michael Ogrodnick said police arrested Yarieilzoleh on a charge of carrying a concealed weapon.
▪ Ogrodnick said after the arrest there was no indication Yarieilzoleh’s Palm Beach foray had anything to do with the president’s Mar-a-Lago club, located about four miles from where the arrest was made.
▪ Yarieilzoleh, whose name was misspelled in initial reports before police corrected the spelling Monday, was not booked into Palm Beach County jail. The accompanying picture is not an official mug shot, but a photo taken at the Palm Beach police station. He was issued a Notice to Appear Jan. 29 in Palm Beach County court and released.
▪ Yarieilzoleh has no previous criminal record in Florida. He was cited for operating a motor vehicle (a 2007 Saturn according to the citation) with an expired registration on Jan. 5 in Boca Raton, according to a citation issued by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. He paid the $116 fine the next day.
▪ A Masoud Services Inc was registered in the State of Washington to Yarieilzoleh at his Seattle address. The business was administratively dissolved on Jan. 3.
This story was originally published January 13, 2020 at 2:49 PM.
