– husband seeks to have house arrest time reduced
Sabrina Budhram, who along with her husband pleaded guilty to money laundering in a New York court, has begun serving her year-and-a-day sentence even as her husband, Arnold Budhram, is seeking to have his six-month house arrest sentence reduced by two months.
Earlier, through her lawyer, John Bergendahl, Sabrina had sought to have a non-custodial sentence and stated that she had to give round-the-clock care and attention to her seven-year-old son who suffers from a chronic digestive disorder.
Her request was also based on her objection to a pre-sentence report that listed the amount of money laundered by her as US$628,710, which she said inflated the US$30,000 ($6 million) to $70,000 ($14 million) range set out in her plea agreement.
However, she was not granted the request and commenced serving her time on March 23. This is now being used as grounds by her husband to have his six-month house arrest sentence reduced. In addition to six months house arrest, Arnold was last year also sentenced to three years probation.
Bergendahl in a letter to presiding judge Edward R. Korman, which this newspaper has seen, said he was making the request on behalf of Arnold who is the spouse of his client Sabrina.
He said that Arnold was initially arrested in March 2004 and pleaded guilty in October 2005. As a condition of his bond, he wore an ankle bracelet and was electronically monitored for over two years. The electronic monitoring component of his bond was removed in March 2008.
On October 31, 2008, Arnold was sentenced to six months house arrest with electronic monitoring. The conditions of his sentence were that he only be allowed to be out of the home 60 hours a week and he must stay home for one day a week, commonly referred to as lock-down. He also cannot travel outside the Eastern District of New York and according to the lawyer he has complied with all the requirements.
However, because Sabrina has started serving her time it has led to Arnold needing more time away from home “in order to keep up his son’s needs, i.e., schooling, doctors’ appointments, and the like,” the letter said.
“Above and beyond all of these needs, Mr Budhram would like to be able to visit with his wife at the MCC New York. MCC New York will not allow Mr Budhram access because of his ankle bracelet.”
For those reasons, the lawyer said, Arnold Budhram was requesting a two-month early termination of his home confinement or alternatively the elimination of the electronic monitoring component of his sentence as it would mean he can then visit his wife.
The Budhrams were arrested and charged with money laundering on April 6, 2004 and investigators searched their home and work offices and gathered a large amount of evidential material. They were granted US$5 million bail each but were placed under electronic monitoring and were not allowed to leave their home without permission except to go to work. The prosecution had revealed how Arnold Budhram, vice president at a bank, and Sabrina Budhram, a radiology technician, used a company they had set up and their connections to launder money for drug traffickers operating in Guyana.
Court documents stated that a handwritten “money and drug ledger,” found in the Budhrams’ home at the time of their arrest, referred to individuals who were believed to be accused drug dealer Roger Khan’s co-conspirators and this may be used as evidence against Khan. The prosecution had told the court that bank records 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.
Khan has since pleaded guilty to trafficking in more than 150 kilos of cocaine among other things.
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.
