Days after he was deported for entering the US with a forged visa, one of the accused in $70 million Valentine’s Day liquor bust was yesterday granted $800,000 bail by Chief Justice(ag) Ian Chang despite objections from the prosecution who pointed out the man had skipped the country.
Joseph Sahadeo, who, along with several others, faces charges for the February 14, 2007 bust, moved to the High Court after Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry at the Providence Magistrate Court remanded him to prison on September 11. The magistrate’s action stemmed from Sahadeo skipping his $500,000 bail in 2008 and it was later learnt that he entered the US on a forged visa from St Maarten.
Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) Prosecutor Gino Persaud yesterday argued strenuously for the defendant to be further remanded to prison, arguing that the man was granted bail in 2007 but he skipped bail early in 2008. He pointed out that Sahadeo may want to skip the country again as he did in the past.
Some time in 2008, Sahadeo stopped attending court and his sister had attended on a few occasions and told the magistrate that her brother was ill. The magistrate subsequently issued an arrest warrant for him and forfeited his bail, before later ruling to try him ex-parte.
Sahadeo only returned to Guyana when he was deported after being found guilty by a jury in an Atlanta, Georgia court of fraud and misuse of visa/permits, following his arrest in November of 2008. Sahadeo was also slapped with a fraud with identification documents charge but he was found not guilty on that count and Judge Timothy C. Batten sentenced him to time spent in custody while on trial and ordered that he be deported.
He was deported earlier this month and was promptly arrested by police, who were alerted of his arrest by US officials. The officials, Stabroek News understands, had searched the man’s name upon his arrest and found newspaper articles online about him being charged in Guyana. They contacted both police and GRA officials and requested information on the charge and these were forwarded.
‘Gasoline odour
visa’
According to an affidavit by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) enforcement officer Edith Silva, on November 22, 2008 Sahadeo arrived at the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Georgia on a Delta Airlines flight 440 from St Maarten. He presented two passports — one valid and one expired — with the expired passport bearing a non-immigrant visitor’s visa, to immigration officials and claimed he was in the US for one week to visit friends. The officer said during a primary immigration inspection his name was entered into the Treasury Enforcement Computer System (TECS) and his name matched an existing record for a person involved in possible illegal currency activity.
As a result he was referred to a secondary baggage area to check for currency smuggling and he was spoken to about his travel to Atlanta, Georgia.
His accounts of his travel were considered “not to be credible because the account changed several times during the conversation” and he was then escorted for further questioning.
Sahadeo’s visa was further examined and it was “suspected that the document was false because of a strong odour similar to gasoline on the document. [It] was suspected that a solvent had been used to eradicate information that had been printed on the face of the visa at issuance.” Silva in her affidavit said that the visa was then examined under extreme magnification and various light sources and it was determined that it appeared counterfeit as certain security features, including “check digits” on the face were mis-coded for his identity.
Further checks revealed that the visa was in fact issued to a female on November 21, 2002 in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and a copy of the woman’s photograph was retrieved. The woman had reported her visa lost or stolen.
Meanwhile, officials later learnt following some more checking that Sahadeo had been denied a US visa on three occasions in 2002, 2004 and 2005. In 2004, the consular officer said, Sahadeo had “admitted to submitting fake documents – he said he was trying to adopt his brother’s kids by getting fake birth certificates for them.”
In 2005, he also submitted fake documents and in the other application he said that he would start his own fishing business in the US and claimed that he made $2.4M a year. However, only $390,000 was found in his bank account.
Sahadeo was taken into custody and charged and he pleaded guilty and was given a trial by jury which lasted several months.
Sahadeo, of 168 Industry, is on trial in connection with the liquor bust along with Mark Chandra of Eccles; Shawn Ali of 2280 Diamond; Madhu of 36 Public Road, La Grange; Vinod Bhagwandin; Krishendat Ramdin and Umbar Angad. They all had pleaded not guilty to dealing with goods with intent to defraud the GRA of duties and being knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion of Customs import duties. The case proceeded against the seven men, while Delroy Neil Samaroo is still at large.
According to the facts of the case, on February 14, 2007 the men along with others were knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion of Customs import duties in relation to a large quantity of smuggled, assorted liquor conveyed on the MV Lady Kimberly, of which a certain portion was discharged at Rambarran’s wharf, Land of Canaan. The liquor was then allegedly transferred to a waiting Canter truck and minibuses. According to a GRA press release, the seizure operation began during the early hours of the said date, following intelligence that there was a vessel with smuggled goods moored at the wharf.
The bust involved the seizure of the MV Lady Kimberly, a modified fibre-glass trawler, a 14 ft aluminium boat equipped with a 15 hp engine, three enclosed Canter trucks, a minibus and a car, saw more than 4,000 cases of Heineken, 500 cases of assorted liquor, such as Grey Goose vodka, Bailey’s Irish cream, Tequila spirits, Hennessey cognac, Absolut vodka (assorted), Black Label whiskey, Johnny Walker whiskey and more than 300 cases of Red Bull energy drink being among the items seized. The items were believed to be for high-ranking businessmen and were shipped from St Maarten.
This matter comes up again before Magistrate Sewnarine-Beharry on October 27.
