"One of the more prolific and ruthless con men ever to hit California."

A Nepalese, posing as royalty, faces criminal charges in US.

Kaushal Niroula, 26, also called by nick names like Nepalese Prince, Prince Little Stuff or Dark Prince, who claims to be Nepalese royalty, has been charged with several criminal cases in the US.

According to US media reports, Niroula, short and neatly dressed with attractively dainty features, is suspected to be the ringleader of several murder cases and criminal activities. Recently, he has been implicated in a murder-larceny case in Palm Springs, a desert city in Riverside County, California.

Niroula, a spiffy-dressing Nepalese immigrant with a haughty British accent, apparently served as the hub of an alleged gay-grifter crew. When Niroula was arraigned on March 11, attorneys, police, victims, and former friends already suspected him of being one of the more prolific and ruthless con men ever to hit California.

He is credited with persuading the president of the New College of California that he was Nepalese royalty poised to donate $1 million to the college. In exchange, he purportedly received scholarships and unearned class credits that allowed him to fraudulently extend his student visa.

Niroula also allegedly posed as a business consultant to a Japanese tourist and robbed US$508,000 and as an art consultant, pried $485,000 from a Silicon Valley collector. He then allegedly stole $300,000 worth of jewelry in Marin County. He was arrested after the incident but was bailed out with 50,000 dollars.

Niroula was admitted to New College of California in 2002, armed with a persona apparently tailored for the college president's needs. Niroula assured all possible support for upgrading this college to an international standard, represented college president in several occasions and due to him, the college has to be shut down in spring.

In July 2006, he had traveled to Waikiki, where he introduced himself to a Japanese tourist named Megumi Hisamatsu and assured to help her invest in US real estate through his consulting agency. Niroula persuaded Hisamatsu to set up U.S. bank accounts containing more than $500,000 and by using pages of a checkbook he'd taken from her, he was able to empty the accounts. When she began to get wise, Niroula claimed he had used the money to rescue members of the Nepalese royal family who were in great danger because of turmoil in their country.

Last year, he also managed to fool an art seller in San Francisco and sniffed off over 400,000 dollars posing himself as broker for selling a paint from British crown, gifted by Nazis