Latest update April 24th, 2024 12:59 AM
Sep 22, 2014 News
…petitions US court for prosecution’s evidence
Embattled Guyanese businessman, Sonny Ramdeo, who is currently remanded in a Florida jail, is set to be sentenced on November 14.
But he is still attempting to defend his innocence and has since filed a motion to have a US judge grant him access to the evidence to be used against him by the US prosecutors.
Ramdeo recently filed a motion to the court claiming that the US prosecutors have been withholding evidence from him. He further claims that none of his previous attorneys ever had a chance to peruse the evidence against him.
Ramdeo is further alleging that some of the evidence include computers and other devices that were seized without a warrant following his arrest. He is adamant that the evidence he seeks will address numerous issues at his sentencing and has since petitioned the court to direct the US Government, through its prosecutors, to allow him to inspect, “examine, copy and print materials beneficial to him for sentencing purposes.”
He noted too that his most recent defence lawyer, prior to the termination of his services had shared case information with the prosecution regarding the possible disposition of the charges pending a plea agreement. Ramdeo is also contesting several pieces of evidence the US prosecutors intend to use against him at sentencing.
Last month Ramdeo, sacked another defence lawyer and has since opted to defend himself as the case winds up. Ramdeo, who was behind the failed low cost carrier EZjet, was charged in the US with embezzling millions from the hospital chain he had been employed at.
Ramdeo at the time argued that the reason for his decision was based on the “narrow scope of representation” which he tells the court will not move the litigation further “based on facts surrounding the totality of the circumstances of the matter.”
According to Ramdeo, he is left with “no choice” but to represent himself to prevent a miscarriage of justice.”
He has repeatedly changed attorneys, some of which were provided by the State to represent him.
He has also pleaded not guilty, changed that to guilty and attempted to change it back to not guilty.
Ramdeo was also recently found guilty of obstruction of justice when he had attempted to change his guilty plea to that of not guilty. Ramdeo’s troubles were escalated further as he was put on notice that at sentencing he should be prepared to address the questions of whether his advisory guideline sentencing range should be increased for obstruction of justice based upon false testimony he presented.
Ramdeo was found to have lied to the court about representation provided to him by court appointed lawyers.
Ramdeo has pleaded guilty to one count each of wire fraud and money laundering, admitting that he stole between US$20M-$50M and using a number of bank transactions, passed the monies through the accounts of EZjet, a low-cost charter that he started up in 2011 and which folded last December, following his arrest in Brooklyn by US federal agents.
According to court documents seen by Kaieteur News, Ramdeo was hired in 2005 by Promise Healthcare Inc., and Success Healthcare Inc., two sister companies that manage hospitals in a number of US states, to work along with its payroll tax systems.
After the contract for the independent company which handled the tax payments for the companies was terminated, Ramdeo informed his employers that he knew a firm that could do the job. What he did not tell them was that Payserv Tax Inc. was a company he created, and in which he had ownership interest. Investigators found that the original address of Payserv was Ramdeo’s home in Florida.
As a result, Promise Healthcare Inc. transferred millions to Payserv. While employed at Promise, Ramdeo also created and started EZjet GT Inc., a chartered air service providing flights to passengers from New York to Georgetown, Guyana. He also added flights to Toronto.
Ramdeo admitted that he did not seek permission when he transferred millions from Payserv to EZjet. None of the money he collected from his employers to pay taxes ever ended up with the Inland tax agency of the US. Only Ramdeo had control of the bank accounts. He used some of the money to finance the operations of the airline.
When questions were raised during an audit of Promise Healthcare, Ramdeo created an email account and sent messages to himself showing that the monies from his employers were paid over.
With the net closing in around him, Ramdeo emptied his Florida home of its furniture and disappeared.
Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), tracking his calls, arrested him in a basement apartment in Brooklyn, New York. The apartment was disguised to look like a storeroom.
LISTEN HOW JAGDEO WILL MAKE ALL GUYANESE RICH!!!
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