US Govt. seizes Ed Ahmad’s cash

The US Government, as part of its move to collect US$500,000 from embattled Guyanese businessman, Ed Ahmad, has already seized a portion of that amount from him.
According to court documents filed yesterday in a New York court, collectors managed to put their hands on US$28.662.18.
Officials executed a seizure warrant on December 23 and will be holding it in a special bank account pending sentencing of Ahmad.

Ed Ahmad

On November 28th, US Attorneys wrote Judge Dora Irizarry of the Eastern District of New York, asking that she grant a forfeiture order. Ahmad, well known in Guyana for his hardware business and other interests, has to pay the monies before he is sentenced.
On October 10, 2012, the defendant pleaded guilty, before the same Judge, on count one of the ten-count criminal complaint against him. He told the court that his attorney had advised him that there is no viable defence to the charges against him.
In admitting guilt, Ahmad told Judge Irizarry that between January 1995 and January 2009, within the Eastern District of New York and elsewhere, together with others, he knowingly and intentionally conspired to defraud several lending institutions, in a mortgage fraud scheme that lasted almost 15 years.
The United States Attorney’s office alleges that Ahmad was part of a scheme that defrauded American lending institutions of approximately US$50M, obtaining approval for mortgages on various properties by falsifying documents submitted to the lending institutions, using a string of straw buyers, and other illegal practices.
In detailing the allegations against the Queens businessman with strong political connections, Judge Irizarry outlined a scheme which had as its victims not only financial institutions, but also many ordinary New Yorkers, most of whom were Guyanese immigrants pursuing the American dream of owning their own homes only to find themselves trapped in a real estate scheme, which ultimately resulted in them losing their homes in foreclosure proceedings while Ahmad and his co-conspirators made millions of dollars.
Ahmad admitted in court that he knew what he was doing was illegal.

Judge Dora Irizarry

Before Ahmad entered his plea, in 2012, Judge Irizarry informed him that his guilty plea would mean that he would be faced with a mandatory US$500,000 criminal forfeiture, a fine that is double the gross monetary loss caused by his conduct.
The government has pegged the momentary loss at US$14M which means that Ahmad would face a criminal fine of US$28M in addition to US$14M in restitution, exposing him to monetary penalties in the total amount of US$42.5M.
While the offence that Ahmad pleaded guilty to carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 30 years, the Federal Sentencing Guidelines will determine exactly how much of the 30 years he is actually sentenced to. Prosecutors had asked for a jail term of between 121 and 151 months (10 to approximately 13 years) of imprisonment.
Ahmad would also be placed on probation for a period that could be up to five years after serving his time.
Ahmad’s case has attracted much attention from the media in Guyana and in New York, fueled by his strong political connections locally and in the U.S.