ICE arrested Iranian national Farzad “Tony” Toutouni late last month after years of openly displaying a luxury lifestyle to more than one million Instagram followers. His posts featured exotic cars, private aircraft, cash, parties and women in various states of undress. ICE says Toutouni, 55, had removal orders, a prior deportation to Mexico and a later illegal reentry. He is now in ICE custody pending removal proceedings. The arrest raises a basic enforcement question: how did someone with such a public profile remain in the country for so long?
According to ICE, Toutouni first entered the United States legally in 1983. ICE says he has also used the name Robert. An immigration judge ordered him removed in 1993, but he was not removed then. A second removal order came in 1999, followed by his deportation to Mexico. Toutouni later admitted reentering illegally in 2011 near Saint Clair, Michigan, by crossing the river on an electric raft he bought in Canada. That timeline shows repeated contact with the immigration system before his latest detention.
Farzad Toutouni Built a Public Persona Around Excess
After returning, Toutouni built an online persona as a self-made entrepreneur and “Pelvis Philanthropist.” The account turned his lifestyle into a public spectacle, not a private secret, putting the luxury display in front of a huge audience. ICE said it showed exotic vehicles, luxury aircraft, large amounts of cash and parties involving nude women. The agency said the content “appears to consist of hard- and soft-core pornography.” That wording is ICE’s characterization, not a court finding about every post, but it explains why the account drew official attention.
Some posts described in the ICE release were especially brazen. One showed Toutouni on a private jet with three women and bundles of hundred-dollar bills, captioned, “I live my life like it’s my last day every day!” Another showed him shirtless in a high-rise apartment with a naked woman over his shoulder and the words, “No wife great wife.” Recent images reportedly showed women around a kitchen counter with alcohol bottles and lines resembling drugs, along with Toutouni covered in cash. Instagram posts do not prove every allegation, but they clearly made excess the center of his public identity.
The Criminal Record Behind the Instagram Show
ICE says the criminal activity it described began as early as 1989 and included arrests for criminal threats, criminal conspiracy, and possession and sale of a controlled substance. The agency also said he was sentenced to more than 16 months in prison for offenses including use of a fake check, grand theft of an access card, conspiracy to commit a crime, possession or alteration of access-card equipment, forgery, kidnapping, robbery and extortion. The distinction matters because arrests and a prison sentence are not the same thing. The ICE release gives no dates for each arrest or outcomes for every case.
While his immigration status remained unresolved, ICE said Toutouni lived in a $5 million mansion in the Hollywood Hills. That contrast gives the case its political force: ICE described a man with removal history, while his feed presented a celebrity entrepreneur seemingly untouched by it. For immigration critics, the issue is not simply that an influencer was flashy or offensive. It is that a person with a prior deportation and admitted illegal reentry could maintain such a visible lifestyle until his arrest late last month. The timeline invites scrutiny of enforcement, without requiring anyone to believe every claim made online.
ICE Mentions a Mansion Murder Without Alleging a Connection
ICE also noted that Israeli immigrant Emil Lahaziel was murdered outside a West Hollywood mansion Toutouni was renting in June 2023. ICE’s account does not say Toutouni was charged with or responsible for that killing. That distinction matters in a case already filled with criminal allegations and sensational imagery. The confirmed development is narrower: immigration agents arrested Toutouni, and he will remain in ICE custody while removal proceedings continue. The ICE release provides no timetable or final outcome for those proceedings.
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