Evidence found in the home of a husband and wife who are awaiting sentencing in a US court after pleading guilty to money laundering, could be used against drug accused Roger Khan as it is believed that they laundered money for his drug organisation.
According to court documents, a handwritten “money and drug ledger” found in Arnold and Sabrina Budhram’s New York home referred to individuals who are believed to be Khan’s co-conspirators.
Bank records have indicated that in 2001, a company associated with the Budhrams transferred money to a bank account in the name of Khan’s wife and child and it appeared that Khan was in direct contact with the Budhrams in early 2003.
The Budhrams were arrested and charged with money laundering on April 6, 2004 and their home and work offices were searched by investigators, who gathered a large amount of evidential material. They were granted US$5 million bail each, which was put up in cash and surety by many family members who were present in court when they made their first appearance. They were also placed under electronic monitoring and were not allowed to leave their home without permission except to go to work.
The prosecution revealed how the bank vice-president, Arnold Budhram, and the radiology technician, Sabrina Budhram, used a company they had set up and their connections to launder money for drug traffickers operating in Guyana. Sabrina Budhram is the sister of Peter Morgan, who is now facing drug charges in New York after being extradited from Trinidad. Records showed that in at least one case the couple transferred funds in his name.
Meanwhile, the prosecution served a seizure warrant on JP Morgan Chase bank, for an account held there which listed the principal owner as James Morgan, father of Peter Morgan and Sabrina Budhram. In 2004, when Arnold and Sabrina Budhram were arrested, the court was told, James Morgan was serving a ten-year sentence in the United Kingdom for drug importation.
The Budhrams pleaded guilty to money laundering on September 14, 2005.
Narcotics conspiracy
Presenting his case to the court on the day the couple first appeared, Prosecutor Michael Ramos said while the matter was couched as a money-laundering scheme, at its heart it was a narcotics conspiracy.
“These two defendants were, at the very least, on the money end of a massive money-laundering scheme that was in support of massive amounts of money flowing back and forth from Guyana to the United States, for the purpose of, quite bluntly, laundering it and hiding its origins,” Ramos said.
He said that for many years a location in New York was the central drop-off point for the Guyanese drug trade as funds would be dropped off, laundered through a company and the money eventually returned to Guyana through various means. In court, it was revealed that at least US$10 million was recorded, either entering or leaving the US, over a period of years, laundered by the Budhrams and their front company.
“However, we have reason to believe that there may have been multiples of that, over US$10 million, because those are only the instances where couriers were stopped and reported the money, either in and out of customs,” the prosecutor further disclosed. For every sum laundered, the couple was expected to earn at least 3%.
Ramos described the illegal enterprise as a “family-run organisation” and said ties between the couple and the leaders of the organisation were more than one would see in an ordinary sort of money-laundering scheme. He described Sabrina Budhram’s family, some of whom he said were in Guyana, as “one of the largest, not just laundering, but in fact, they also do cocaine importations in the United States on their own behalf.”
Another seizure warrant was served on Astoria Federal Savings bank, where Arnold Budhram was a vice-president of operations, against another account which was found there. The two accounts had approximately US$400,000 altogether on the day the Budhrams were arrested. The prosecution said those accounts were “just the tip of the iceberg.”
In his attempt to dissuade the judge from granting the two bail, Ramos had argued that two other defendants who were on pretrial release, who interacted with the organisation and the very New York address and had far lesser means than the organisation had absconded.
He said homes were posted in one instance where the defendant had a bracelet, and in the other instance, the other person was on strict curfew, with voice reporting every night to pretrial services.
“Both of those individuals fled. We see no reason, given that track record of people being customers of this organsiation, people intimately involved in this organisation would not have reason to flee,” he had argued.
‘Quintessential American immigrant family’
However, while Ramos attempted to paint a picture of the Budhrams that indicated they would flee to Guyana if they were granted bail, Arnold’s lawyer, David Cohen, painted another picture.
He told the court that the “quintessential American immigrant family” was sitting in the front row of the court. Cohen pointed to Arnold’s mother, who was in court, who he said migrated from Guyana and was a citizen of America. His brothers were also there and not only did they migrate from Guyana and become citizens, they were also educated in that country and had children in schools in the US.
“These people all have roots to this country and this community. There is only one family member of my client who lives in Guyana, a sister. Other than that, his entire family resides – we have a foreigner… an uncle who lives in Westchester.
Everyone else basically lives in this district,” the lawyer said. He described them as hard-working, educated citizens in the community adding that his client had strong community ties to remain in the country. He said his client was not a man of means, adding that based on the prosecution’s presentation he should have had no debts, mortgages or job. However, Arnold, his lawyer said, worked two jobs at the time and had done so for some 14 years.
After he left the bank in the afternoon, the lawyer said, he went home to work in his home-improvement business, which saw him going to people’s homes to do repairs and plumbing.
Martin Kane, who appeared in association with John Bergendahl, who incidentally is one of Khan’s listed lawyers, said on behalf of Sabrina that she had worked for nine years as a radiology technician at Middle Village Radiology in Queens County. A lot of her time was also spent taking care of the couple’s two-and-a-half-year-old child.
Kane said while she had relatives in Guyana many resided in the US, and many of the persons she interacted with lived in that country. These people, her husband’s blood relatives, were willing to put up their homes and life savings for her.
He said his client had lived in the US since she was in her early twenties and was a US citizen who had not left the country in six years. “Any prior trips were for significant family occasions, many, many years ago,” he said.
It is not clear when the two will be sentenced.
