Man charged in plot to kill Saudi ambassador expected to plead guilty By NBC's Pete Williams and Jonathan Dienst Nueces County Sheriff Mansour Arbabsiar is seen in a 2001 booking photo after he was charged for check fraud. The man charged with plotting to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States in Washington is expected to plead guilty in Manhattan federal court Wednesday, according to officials familiar with the matter. Authorities have said Manssor Arbabsiar, a 56-year-old U.S. citizen with an Iranian passport, admitted his role in a $1.5 million plot to kill the ambassador at a restaurant by setting off explosives. He was indicted last October. The terms of the expected plea deal are unknown. When Arbabsiar's arrest was announced last year, President Barack Obama's administration accused the Iranian government of being behind the planned assassination of Ambassador Adel al Jubeir in Washington. The press attache at Iran's mission to the United Nations then called the accusation "baseless." A second person, Gholam Shakuri, was charged in the plot but remains at large in Iran. The Justice Department said Shakuri is an Iran-based member of Iran's Qods Force, which is a special operations unit of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that is said to sponsor and promote terrorist activities abroad.