Just days after he became the target of a civil suit by his former employer alleging embezzlement, now indicted EZjet boss Sonny Ramdeo created a new company with two associates.
According to a deposition by a US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agent seen by Stabroek News, Ramdeo created a new company incorporated in Delaware, US. The address for the new company was 103-15 91st Street, Ozone Park, New York 11416. It was at this very location that Ramdeo was arrested at 6 pm on December 11, 2012 according to FBI Special Agent, Michael Weniger.
The purpose of the establishing of the company is unclear but it had come around the same time that the US Department of Transportation (DOT) had suspended EZjet’s operations, forcing the Guyana Civil Aviation Administration to follow suit.
Weniger, in his deposition to begin proceedings for Ramdeo to be removed to the state of Florida for trial on wire fraud recounted the arrest of the EZjet boss. He said that at the time of his arrest, Ramdeo produced a Florida state driver’s licence in the name of Sonny Austin Ramdeo. Weniger said that both the defendant and the photograph on the driver’s licence matched a photo of the defendant on the investigative file. Weniger said that Ramdeo also responded by name to law enforcement.
The indictment by the United States District Court, Southern District of Florida details the alleged fraudulent transactions that Ramdeo as payroll manager for the Promise Healthcare Inc group was said to have engaged in.
The indictment says that just around the time he launched EZjet’s operations here, Ramdeo opened an electronic chequing account at PNC Bank, NA, in Sunrise, Florida in the name of EZjet GT Inc. The indictment at part i alleges that “Defendant Ramdeo caused book transfers of money from the PayServ Tax, Inc. accounts at PNC Bank, NA which were designated for payment of the Promise Hospitals’ payroll taxes due and owing to local, state and federal taxing agencies to EZjet GT Inc bank accounts at PNC Bank, NA. Defendant Ramdeo then used these moneys for his own benefit, including payment of EZjet GT Inc. expenses incurred in order to operate the charter air service such as airplane and crew rental, fuel, food, ground crew and air terminal costs”.
Questions have been asked as to why aviation authorities here did not undertake a more detailed investigation of Ramdeo’s background to determine if he was a suitable candidate to run an airline and had the financial wherewithal to do that. Local authorities appeared to have relied entirely on the permission that Ramdeo had been granted by the US DOT. On October 18, 2012 Promise Healthcare and 11 of its hospitals sued Ramdeo, their former payroll manager who they hired eight years ago to manage the payroll for 3,500 employees in its hospitals nationwide.
According to details of the suit, published by the Court House News Service, Promise Healthcare accuses Ramdeo, and his companies of “stealing over (US) five million dollars” through a scheme in which he deceived both the company’s senior management and its auditors.
It said Ramdeo is accused of incorporating a company called ‘PayServ Tax Inc.’ and deceiving Promise’s senior management into believing that it was a legitimate payroll tax processing company affiliated with the nationally known payroll processing company, Ceridian. “Based on this lie, he deceived Promise into transferring millions of dollars to PayServ Tax Inc. and diverted over (US) five million dollars of Promise’s money to himself and his companies,” according to the complaint. Ceridian is not a party to the complaint.
In his indictment, federal prosecutors say that Ramdeo faces charges of embezzling US$20 million ($4B) from his former employer in a payroll tax fraud scheme. If convicted he faces 20 years in jail.
