EZjet boss arrested in NY on charge of embezzling US$20M

Posted By Stabroek editor On December 13, 2012 @ 7:21 am In Local | No Comments

EZjet boss Sonny Ramdeo was yesterday arrested in Brooklyn, New York on a charge of embezzlement from his former employer.

 

The Florida newspaper Sun Sentinel today reported federal prosecutors as saying that Ramdeo faces charges of embezzling US$20 million ($4B) from his former employer in a payroll tax fraud scheme. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation in a statement yesterday said that he was formally indicted on December 6, 2012 and made his first appearance in a New York court yesterday.

Sonny Ramdeo

While Ramdeo was arrested in New York he will likely face trial in Florida, according to Annette Castillo, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, in Miami.

 

The report said that from as early as 2005, Ramdeo, 35, worked as the payroll supervisor at Promise Healthcare Inc. and Success Healthcare Group. The Sun Sentinel said that as the payroll supervisor for both companies, Ramdeo managed the payroll for more than 3,500 employees in hospitals nationwide.

Federal officials charge that Ramdeo incorporated PayServ Tax Inc., and told the hospital chains he would handle the transfer of local, state and federal payroll taxes to the proper agencies on their behalf. Instead, authorities charge, he kept the money.

 

In October, Promise Healthcare filed a lawsuit accusing Ramdeo of embezzling more than US$5 million to keep his airline afloat.

 

Ramdeo’s legal troubles came shortly before the US Department of Transportation suspended its air service, throwing the airline into turmoil and leaving hundreds on both sides of the Atlantic stranded and out of pocket. Refunds have since begun.

The Palm Beach Post in its online edition is reporting that Ramdeo, of Sunrise, Florida was charged with three counts of wire fraud, which could send him to prison for 20 years.

 

The indictment alleges that from September 2003 until October of this year, Ramdeo wired money into his accounts that was to have been used to cover payroll taxes for Promise Healthcare’s roughly 3,500 workers. He formed two companies, Payserv Tax and EZjet GT, to receive the money, prosecutors said.

The chain of private hospitals is owned by the same people who own the management company. They own hospitals in seven states. The only Florida location is Promise Hospital of Florida, the Palm Beach Post said.

 

According to the indictment, in 2011 and 2012 Ramdeo made two transfers, totalling US$363,700, to his account that was to be used for payroll taxes at a hospital in East Los Angeles. In October, he diverted US$100,828 that was to cover payroll taxes for employees of a hospital in Gonzales, La.

 

After reports that he was being sought by the FBI in the embezzlement case, Ramdeo apparently went into hiding but said via several press releases issued in EZjet’s name that he was in contact with the FBI.

 

The FBI press release on the case follows:

Sunrise Man Arrested and Charged in $20 Million Payroll Tax Fraud Scheme

 

U.S. Attorney’s Office December 12, 2012

Southern District of Florida (313) 226-9100

Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; Michael B. Steinbach, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); Jose A. Gonzalez, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division (IRS-CID); and Christopher B. Dennis, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), announce the unsealing of a December 6, 2012 indictment charging Sonny Austin Ramdeo, 35, of Sunrise, with wire fraud in connection with a $20 million federal payroll tax fraud scheme, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1343 and 2. Ramdeo was arrested today in Brooklyn and made his initial appearance in federal court in the Eastern District of New York earlier today. He is expected to be removed to the Southern District of Florida on these charges.

 

According to the indictment, from as early as 2005, defendant Ramdeo was employed as the payroll supervisor at Promise Healthcare Inc. (Promise Health Care) and Success Healthcare Group (Success Healthcare), both of which owned and operated hospital facilities throughout the United States. As the payroll supervisor for these two companies (the companies), Ramdeo was responsible for overseeing the payment of bi-weekly wages and related payroll taxes for more than 3,500 employees.

 

To execute his scheme, Ramdeo allegedly incorporated PayServ Tax Inc. and thereafter represented to officers and employees of Promise Healthcare that PayServ Tax would handle the transfer of local, state, and federal payroll taxes to the proper agencies on behalf of Promise Healthcare and Success Healthcare. In fact, however, Ramdeo kept the money paid by Promise and Success Healthcare to PayServ for his personal use.

 

Mr. Ferrer commended the investigative efforts of the FBI, IRS-CID, and HHS-OIG. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ellen L. Cohen.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida at www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls.

 

 He sold it for a substantial profit at 25 million/ Now go to St Stephens to confession before you suck on that wafer. Otherwise, know god is watching!

The fact remains there are no PNC fat cats. The PPP party is populated with grotesquely and obscenely rich crooks who 20 years ago did not have a pot to piss in. Unless you can do some truly spectacular Hollywood accounting, there is no remote possibility for Jagdeo to build his home given his official income. He had to steal his ass off.

This is one stupid, greedy f*&K. What an ass? Now he will have to go to jail for 30 years with bubba up his backside simply because he stole money to lose it in the worse kind of investment in under a year.

Seems Jagdeo's buddies are falling like flies..RK....Ed the talking horse.. now this one. Further, there are some 10 or more in the Pipeline including Roopnarine and Baldeo who are surely going to be hug buddies with bubba.

they falling one by one,ppp your days is #,camp st prison is waiting,but what will hurt lots of them now is if the US cancel their visa

Outsourcing, Insourcing and Corruption

Tarron Khemraj On December 12, 2012 @ 5:01 am In Stabroek News Daily,Features 

TK, I would watch my back ( actually I am watching mine with good reason). The PPP are seriously crooked and not reticent to use murder to gain their ends. Look at how they crippled Freddie and constantly harass him. Just be careful. You are one of their principal enemy since you have credibility in the international community and they have no luminary to contest you. Misir has to harmonize with their ideology. Further, he is morally crippled.

Thank you Stromborn. In the past I took things for granted. Now that I have been told by a security officer that I am on a surveillance list the ease with which I moved on the ground is over.   

http://www.kaieteurnewsonline....suse-of-state-funds/

The Marriott Hotel is a classic case of the misuse of state funds

Dear Editor,
In light of the ongoing construction of the Marriott Hotel, we again reexamine the issue of the use of state funds without Parliament’s approval and the people’s consent. This is clearly outside of the rule of law and it is an indictment on the government. It is also an insult to the people by the opposition to allow this project to continue without putting up a fight.
Pressure by the opposition must be brought to bear on this corrupt regime to adhere to the laws and rules of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act and by extension the Constitution. Respect for the rule of law and the people’s right to know is a key ingredient of democracy.
If this administration believes in democracy, then it must act accordingly and respect the democratic process.
Both the opposition and the people are being kept in the dark as to who are the financiers of the Marriott Hotel and how much of the taxpayers’ money is being used to build what we believe will be another white elephant. We call on the government to come clean and tell the people the truth.
In the law, the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act states that all public moneys shall be classified as either – a) received moneys; b) moneys in the Consolidated Fund, including the Contingencies Fund (under parliament’s control); c) moneys in an Extra-budgetary Fund (such as NICIL, Forestry Commission etc.); d) drawn moneys; or e) moneys in a Deposit Fund.
All of this money, in whatever shape or form is the people’s money and classified as state funds. In 2011 the estimated amount was $160 billion of which some $55 billion is secretly placed in what is called Extra-Budgetary Funds under the direct control of the Minister of Finance.
Only the Minister has access to this money, not Parliament. This $55 billion is not however included in the National Budget and therefore is not investigated by the opposition in Parliament.
Rather, in a most convoluted manner; using unclear regulations, these funds are actually hidden from the Guyanese public.
The Minister is even on record of stating that “NICIL money belongs to NICIL” and not the people.
This is absolute nonsense. We call on the opposition to put an end to this type of abuse of the people’s money.
But how did NICIL acquire its assets and whose properties did it acquire for peanuts and sell at premium prices?  It’s all in the vesting agreement that we will deal with another day to reveal how the poor and the working class are being robbed blindly by the political directorate.
When the above question is answered it will reveal that NICIL’s money belongs to the people of Guyana and must be in the Consolidated Fund and only a deceitful, devious and dishonest cabal would say otherwise. We believe that it is wrong for the government to hide the people’s money and use it as it pleases. Clearly, this is classical misuse of the state funds and should not be tolerated.
In researching the issue it was found that according to the Section 39 of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act, all these outfits like NICIL must submit to the Parliament quarterly reports on their financial operations.
The Lotto Funds, NICIL, Gold Board, Frequency Management Unit, GGMC, and the Forestry Commission should be providing their respective Ministers with quarterly reports to be submitted to Parliament for public scrutiny.
What Mr. Brassington and NICIL’s Board of Directors are not authorized to do is to allocate these Extra-budgetary Funds for financing risky social and economic development projects such as the Marriott Hotel which is being built at a time when hotel occupancy rate in Guyana is at an all-time low of 46 percent. Mr. Brassington and Dr Singh are just the caretakers of these funds and therefore are not authorized to spend it without parliamentary approval.
And as we have seen, they have ignored the laws prescribed in the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act, violated the people’s trust and have blatantly shown contempt for Parliament.
The opposition should demand that they hand over forthwith a number of pertinent financial records of all the state assets that have been disposed of/sold by the Government through NICIL, and to deposit into the Consolidated Fund all monies from NICIL, save and except cash to pay the operation cost of NICIL for 12 months.
This is what the people expect from the opposition because they elected them to keep a very close eye on how the government spends the taxpayers’ money.
On June 17th, 2012, the government jettisoned Mr. Carl Greenidge’s motion to direct the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh and the junior minister, Mr. Juan Edghill to make all moneys available from the coffers for an independent audit of NICIL.
It is most unfortunate that the majority opposition to date has not been able to make right on Mr. Greenidge’s motion.
Let us be candid, why did the people vote for the opposition AFC and APNU in the first place when from a position of strength they cower to the PPP bullyism?  For them to carry out such a lame duck attempt in Parliament at righting the wrongs committed by the arrogant and contemptuous PPP is politically pathetic?
APNU and the AFC must be aware that they have to be more aggressive in dealing with this political monster if not, they will lose the battle and the trust and confidence placed in them by the people. In other words, they will have no credibility left and this is exactly what the PPP wants.
Why the opposition has not used its majority in Parliament to pass laws to correct past injustices is anyone’s guess?
After one year, the majority opposition has not passed a single law in Parliament to relieve the burden on the poor and the working class. They have presided over what we have called a “do-nothing” Parliament which is about to recess in a few days.
As we stated, there is some $55 billion outside of the Consolidated Funds and to date, some 12 months after the elections all these funds still remain outside and continue to be misused on shady projects without Parliamentary approval.
The leaders of APNU and the AFC should know from past experiences that they cannot and should not trust the dictatorial PPP. The burden is on the combined opposition to expose the wrongs committed by the PPP and to pass laws to prevent them from happening in the future.
This act of pumping billions of the taxpayers’ funds into the Marriot Hotel without Parliamentary approval is illegal and this illegality must be corrected retrospectively, even if it means putting some before the Courts in a future Government.
This is the ‘Fip’ Motilall saga all over again. It is this same cabal who found all the reasons to justify the reckless financial support for ‘Fip’, only to have that Ponzi scheme unravel like a pack of cards.  Do we have another pack of cards in the making?  Yes we do!
Today, because of the scorched earth policy of the PPP administration and their intransigence on the ‘Fip’ Motilall issue, the taxpayers are in the red, having lost hundreds of millions in this scheme that is best described as white collar fraud.
Yet no one has been charged or held accountable. In light of all this evidence, what are APNU and the AFC doing?
In closing we want to let the people know that the barrier to good governance and the lack of transparency is being done willfully by the regime to secretly use the taxpayers’ money to finance projects that will benefit themselves, their business buddies and relatives.
Our hope is for the sleeping opposition to finally awake and put an end to the blatant abuse of power and misuse of state funds.
Dr. Asquith Rose and Harish S. Singh

The Marriott Hotel is a classic case of the misuse of state funds

Dear Editor,
In light of the ongoing construction of the Marriott Hotel, we again reexamine the issue of the use of state funds without Parliament’s approval and the people’s consent. This is clearly outside of the rule of law and it is an indictment on the government. It is also an insult to the people by the opposition to allow this project to continue without putting up a fight.
Pressure by the opposition must be brought to bear on this corrupt regime to adhere to the laws and rules of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act and by extension the Constitution. Respect for the rule of law and the people’s right to know is a key ingredient of democracy.
If this administration believes in democracy, then it must act accordingly and respect the democratic process.
Both the opposition and the people are being kept in the dark as to who are the financiers of the Marriott Hotel and how much of the taxpayers’ money is being used to build what we believe will be another white elephant. We call on the government to come clean and tell the people the truth.
In the law, the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act states that all public moneys shall be classified as either – a) received moneys; b) moneys in the Consolidated Fund, including the Contingencies Fund (under parliament’s control); c) moneys in an Extra-budgetary Fund (such as NICIL, Forestry Commission etc.); d) drawn moneys; or e) moneys in a Deposit Fund.
All of this money, in whatever shape or form is the people’s money and classified as state funds. In 2011 the estimated amount was $160 billion of which some $55 billion is secretly placed in what is called Extra-Budgetary Funds under the direct control of the Minister of Finance.
Only the Minister has access to this money, not Parliament. This $55 billion is not however included in the National Budget and therefore is not investigated by the opposition in Parliament.
Rather, in a most convoluted manner; using unclear regulations, these funds are actually hidden from the Guyanese public.
The Minister is even on record of stating that “NICIL money belongs to NICIL” and not the people.
This is absolute nonsense. We call on the opposition to put an end to this type of abuse of the people’s money.
But how did NICIL acquire its assets and whose properties did it acquire for peanuts and sell at premium prices?  It’s all in the vesting agreement that we will deal with another day to reveal how the poor and the working class are being robbed blindly by the political directorate.
When the above question is answered it will reveal that NICIL’s money belongs to the people of Guyana and must be in the Consolidated Fund and only a deceitful, devious and dishonest cabal would say otherwise. We believe that it is wrong for the government to hide the people’s money and use it as it pleases. Clearly, this is classical misuse of the state funds and should not be tolerated.
In researching the issue it was found that according to the Section 39 of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act, all these outfits like NICIL must submit to the Parliament quarterly reports on their financial operations.
The Lotto Funds, NICIL, Gold Board, Frequency Management Unit, GGMC, and the Forestry Commission should be providing their respective Ministers with quarterly reports to be submitted to Parliament for public scrutiny.
What Mr. Brassington and NICIL’s Board of Directors are not authorized to do is to allocate these Extra-budgetary Funds for financing risky social and economic development projects such as the Marriott Hotel which is being built at a time when hotel occupancy rate in Guyana is at an all-time low of 46 percent. Mr. Brassington and Dr Singh are just the caretakers of these funds and therefore are not authorized to spend it without parliamentary approval.
And as we have seen, they have ignored the laws prescribed in the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act, violated the people’s trust and have blatantly shown contempt for Parliament.
The opposition should demand that they hand over forthwith a number of pertinent financial records of all the state assets that have been disposed of/sold by the Government through NICIL, and to deposit into the Consolidated Fund all monies from NICIL, save and except cash to pay the operation cost of NICIL for 12 months.
This is what the people expect from the opposition because they elected them to keep a very close eye on how the government spends the taxpayers’ money.
On June 17th, 2012, the government jettisoned Mr. Carl Greenidge’s motion to direct the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh and the junior minister, Mr. Juan Edghill to make all moneys available from the coffers for an independent audit of NICIL.
It is most unfortunate that the majority opposition to date has not been able to make right on Mr. Greenidge’s motion.
Let us be candid, why did the people vote for the opposition AFC and APNU in the first place when from a position of strength they cower to the PPP bullyism?  For them to carry out such a lame duck attempt in Parliament at righting the wrongs committed by the arrogant and contemptuous PPP is politically pathetic?
APNU and the AFC must be aware that they have to be more aggressive in dealing with this political monster if not, they will lose the battle and the trust and confidence placed in them by the people. In other words, they will have no credibility left and this is exactly what the PPP wants.
Why the opposition has not used its majority in Parliament to pass laws to correct past injustices is anyone’s guess?
After one year, the majority opposition has not passed a single law in Parliament to relieve the burden on the poor and the working class. They have presided over what we have called a “do-nothing” Parliament which is about to recess in a few days.
As we stated, there is some $55 billion outside of the Consolidated Funds and to date, some 12 months after the elections all these funds still remain outside and continue to be misused on shady projects without Parliamentary approval.
The leaders of APNU and the AFC should know from past experiences that they cannot and should not trust the dictatorial PPP. The burden is on the combined opposition to expose the wrongs committed by the PPP and to pass laws to prevent them from happening in the future.
This act of pumping billions of the taxpayers’ funds into the Marriot Hotel without Parliamentary approval is illegal and this illegality must be corrected retrospectively, even if it means putting some before the Courts in a future Government.
This is the ‘Fip’ Motilall saga all over again. It is this same cabal who found all the reasons to justify the reckless financial support for ‘Fip’, only to have that Ponzi scheme unravel like a pack of cards.  Do we have another pack of cards in the making?  Yes we do!
Today, because of the scorched earth policy of the PPP administration and their intransigence on the ‘Fip’ Motilall issue, the taxpayers are in the red, having lost hundreds of millions in this scheme that is best described as white collar fraud.
Yet no one has been charged or held accountable. In light of all this evidence, what are APNU and the AFC doing?
In closing we want to let the people know that the barrier to good governance and the lack of transparency is being done willfully by the regime to secretly use the taxpayers’ money to finance projects that will benefit themselves, their business buddies and relatives.
Our hope is for the sleeping opposition to finally awake and put an end to the blatant abuse of power and misuse of state funds.
Dr. Asquith Rose and Harish S. Singh

Stromborn a gee good advice Mr TK. Watch yuh back. Dem people a gat Nuff Nuff Nuffield drug pushas pun dem side. 

We don't have to look too far, there's one for certain on this BB goes by the name of Druggie.

Because you are attempting to chase your tail?

The word on the street is that the PNC/AFC have now become the drug cartel of South America. No wonder Ramjattan, Nigel, Ganger, Nagamootoo and Gerhard got big house and big swiss bank accounts with house in Florida. These fools try to fool the public but the trail of the cocaine leads right back to them. 

Greed is a serious problem. Seems like the man had a payroll business. 

This man is Ramjattan and Nagamotoo buddy. Look how TK is able to travel to Guyana umpteen times, it is no coincidence. EZjet was the AFC/PNC drug mule but the PPP and US put them out of business when they revoked the airline rights to operate. 

Guyana denying any connection to heist gold – Curacao media report

Posted By Stabroek staff On December 14, 2012 @ 5:25 am In Local | 

The PPP’s rebuttals of Ramkarran are laughable

Posted By Stabroek staff On December 14, 2012 @ 5:06 am In Letters | No Comments

Dear Editor,

The recent statements from Mr Ralph Ramkarran and rebuttals of his position by Freedom House in the Chronicle and SN, show how far from President Cheddi’s political ideals the leaders of the PPP have come; Jagan would have been shocked at the divisions and acrimony infesting the party he so assiduously built from scratch in 1950.The very nature of the divisions, where the PPP lost such notables as Ramjattan, Nagamootoo, Ramkarran and many others and where the Civic component, which Jagan built from scratch in 1992, is now virtually non-existent, strongly suggest that Mr Ramkarran’s presentation in SN is closer to the truth than the PPP’s intemperate rebuttals to his positions. And since the corruption indices from international sources were released last week, the PPP government has gone into high gear to denounce not only Ramkarran’s position on corruption, but the international corruption index which places Guyana as a country with a very high level of corruption, especially in government-run agencies, the largest employers in this country and the greatest spenders ($475 million a day, every day of the year). The public should know, in no uncertain terms, especially when the PPP’s statement to SN mentioned President Cheddi over and over, that Jagan never tolerated corruption at any level of governance and in his lifetime fought corruption with every fibre of his body.

We, the citizens of Guyana, cannot be fooled because we smell, hear and see corruption in our society every day of our lives; we smell the stinky water we have to consume, the garbage rotting all over our city and rural environs, the sewage backing up to make our lives miserable and dangerous for our children, the stray animals with their excrement contaminating our environment after plenty money has been spent to correct these abuses against the people of our country. We hear talk about corruption in the streets in our neighbourhoods, and in our homes where citizens lament the fact that Guyana could be such a progressive country if only we had a leader like Mr Obama who fights corruption every day of his political life. We see the facts before our eyes where this government, for the last 20 years, has not indicted or arrested or convicted anyone for corruption, even though cases like the NCN debacle are obvious and clear to most people. Editor, contrast the efforts of President Obama’s administration, which in four years has locked up many, even in the Guyanese diaspora, for corruption and criminal activity. So, Editor, to me, it seems that Mr Ramkarran’s points about corruption and its effects on the PPP are valid and true, especially after the hysterical propaganda of the PPP to debunk the corruption index and Ramkarran’s positions. The questions which Ralph raised about the political schematics of how the PPP is run and its political ideology are areas which I have long criticized, and as Ralph stated, they need to be addressed. The supporters of that party are getting fed up with the lack of real flexibility and new young dynamic leaders coming to the forefront to lead the party instead of the old and tired leadership which is in place with their old, tired communist ideology of centralism, government domination of the economy and placing the private sector in a secondary role when in fact, the private sector should always be the engine of growth. The lack of local elections for the last 15 years is a good example of their communist inclinations and their anti-democratic intentions, and their intra-party democracy is a sham when they cling to ‘democratic centralism,’ a known euphemism for inner party dictatorship, last seen alive and well in the former Soviet Union. Ramkarran is correct in calling for changes in the PPP and I applaud the fire he has found in his belly and which has made him a visionary, something lacking in the present PPP leadership. The other main point of the PPP’s argument against Mr Ramkarran is the racial/ethnic issue concerning voting trends which he elaborated with great care and documentary evidence. I campaigned for the PPP last November and I can tell the public in no uncertain terms, that the crux of the PPP’s political machinery led by Robert Persaud, was to woo every East Indian to vote for the PPP, and many places like Linden were given up for lost. The results of that election clearly pointed to the central fact that the voting patterns were overwhelmingly racial and no propaganda from the ruling party can change that; as a matter of fact, Robert Persaud and the leaders of the PPP expected to win 56% of the total vote with his gyration politics at big rallies, targeting mostly East Indian areas, even busing in mostly Indians from other areas to enlarge the gatherings. The PPP’s rebuttals of Ramkarran on this issue are laughable at best and we, the citizens of Guyana, cannot be fooled by such propaganda; we are quite aware of the real truth and the real truth is exactly what Mr Ramkarran stated in his presentation and which the PPP will pay for with loss of votes as time passes. Editor, we all know the one thing we cannot stop or slow down – and that is time.

Yours faithfully,

Cheddi (Joey) Jagan (Jr)

An impressive and truthful commentary of the real PPP and it's politics.

I thought "Joey" was his real name and "Cheddie" was the wannabe call-name. Joey, Cheddi (Jr) or whatever, his parents did not touch him "politically" with a 10-foot pole.  The Jagan era is over, Joey (Cheddie) cannot change that.