Latest update March 28th, 2024 12:59 AM
Feb 11, 2015 News
Florida (sun-sentinel.com) – A Palm Beach County man will stay in jail while he fights extradition to Thailand on criminal charges he kidnapped a wealthy U.S. businessman there and tried to collect a $2 million ransom,
a federal judge ruled.
Shawn Abraham Shaw, 43, of Palm Beach, is a serious flight risk and has not proved any “special circumstances” exist that would justify setting him free, U.S. Magistrate Judge William Matthewman ruled Friday.
The alleged victim, who divides his time between Las Vegas and Phuket, told authorities in Thailand that Shaw secretly drugged him at a bar in December 2013, kidnapped him, kept him bound and chained for several hours overnight and negotiated the ransom, which was to be paid after Shaw returned to the U.S.
Shaw denies that he kidnapped anyone and argued that he is the victim of a legitimate business deal gone bad. His lawyer Jason Kreiss argued that the alleged victim has powerful allies in Thailand who orchestrated an unfair and “purchased prosecution” of Shaw.
But the judge ruled that Thai authorities appear to have conducted an independent investigation and the defense provided no evidence or testimony to support its allegation “that the prosecution has been fabricated and purchased by the alleged victim.”
“Although the court finds this to be a highly unusual case with what appears to be a very unusual defense,” the judge wrote, he found that Thai authorities had presented sufficient evidence and grounds to file the criminal charges against Shaw.
Shaw, who has been locked up since he was arrested in late November in Palm Beach, is accused of committing a bizarre set of crimes, including kidnapping, extortion and robbery, against the alleged victim, who was his friend for years. Thai prosecutors and police want Shaw to stand trial there.
Police said the alleged victim, and at least one witness, reported he began to act strangely after drinking a couple of Diet Cokes at a bar in Phuket where he was a regular. The victim told police that Shaw helped the incapacitated man from the bar, put him in a car, tied his neck to the headrest and bound his wrists and ankles. The man said he was held captive overnight and negotiated with Shaw that he would pay a $2 million ransom, which was to be disguised as a business deal. Shaw denies he did anything illegal.
Shaw has no strong ties to South Florida; may have used aliases including Shameer Abraham, Shawn Abraham and Abraham Rasheem; and is facing serious criminal sanctions in Thailand, which gives him a strong incentive to flee if he was released, the judge found.
The judge also expressed concerns about Shaw’s history of international travel, his lack of employment and a deputy U.S. Marshal’s testimony that Shaw and his fiancée both told him that Shaw was a lawyer, though he only completed two years of law school.
Shaw’s fiancée, Dawn Pasqualucci, 45, also of Palm Beach, said that Shaw, a naturalized U.S. citizen, legally changed his name after moving to the U.S. from his native Guyana as a child.
Pasqualucci said she traveled to Phuket with Shaw and met the victim, who had been close friends with Shaw for years after they met in the U.S. She said Shaw was negotiating a proposed business deal with the alleged victim involving Shaw’s idea to make money by cashing in casino chips that tourists took home with them, she said.
She testified that Shaw told her the alleged victim was a pedophile “who liked little boys” and that after Shaw claimed he had found incriminating evidence of pedophilia on the man’s computer, he threatened to kill the couple if “his proclivities were ever made public,” the judge wrote.
Pasqualucci also said that, after their trip, private investigators followed her around New York, where the couple lived at the time. She said she and Shaw moved to Palm Beach a few months later, after a New York police official told her the private eyes had been hired by the victim.
The next step for Shaw will be a March 3 extradition hearing in federal court in West Palm Beach. He’ll try to convince the same judge that he should not be turned over to Thai authorities for several reasons, including his fear that he could be executed if convicted there.
The judge gave the defense more time to conduct its own investigation and said he would reconsider the issue of whether there is sufficient evidence at the extradition hearing.
The judge wrote that it was unclear whether Shaw could actually face the death penalty if convicted in Thailand but said appeals regarding that concern should be made to the U.S. government, not the courts.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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