Former Guyana magistrate Albert Baldeo was yesterday a no show in a New York court where he was scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Paul A Crotty on seven counts of obstructing the course of justice.
According to court filings seen by this newspaper Baldeo, who was found guilty since last August but has been fighting his conviction, did not appear for sentencing “due to medical reasons.” Daniel Richenthal appeared for the government while Henry Mazurek appeared for Baldeo.
“The Court will await further information on Mr Baldeo’s health before rescheduling the sentencing,” the court filing stated.
Early last December Baldeo had filed another motion seeking to have his conviction reconsidered but on Tuesday the judge threw out that motion and said sentencing would have gone ahead yesterday at 3.30 pm as was scheduled.
In a victim impact letter, prosecution witness, Davindranauth Sookai stated that he had testified against Baldeo and that he had worked with the convict’s brother’s medical and real estate office, had bought money orders from funds given to him by the former magistrate and in turn lied to the FBI when asked about it. He said he lied at the request of Baldeo.
The man said he was recommending maximum sentencing for Baldeo because he was a practising attorney who used his knowledge of the law to “manipulate and put fear into my mind by telling me how I can get into serious trouble and be prosecuted if I tell the truth about what had happened.
“Mr Baldeo being an attorney I believed what he was saying because he had knowledge of the law and at the time I myself had 2 very young kids and the thought that I would not be there for them I did what Mr Baldeo told me to do,” Sookai said in the letter.
He concluded that Baldeo broke the law for his own financial gain and should be punished “to the fullest extent of the law.”
Baldeo, a former Queens, New York district leader, was found guilty in federal court of tampering with witnesses during the investigation of his alleged campaign fraud by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Baldeo, 55, was convicted on seven counts of obstruction of justice in a Manhattan federal court after a two-week trial before US District Judge Crotty. He was acquitted of three fraud-related counts relating to approximately US$15,000 in claims for city matching funds.
A release on August 11, 2014 on the conviction from the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York said that according to the Complaint, Indictment and Superseding Indict-ment and evidence presented at trial, in the fall of 2010, Baldeo, then a Queens district leader of a political party and attorney, took part in a scheme to defraud New York City which involved the funnelling of multiple illegal campaign contributions to his eventually unsuccessful campaign for City Council. The release said that on various occasions, Baldeo, and in at least one instance one of his employees, gave money orders or cash to individuals to contribute to the campaign in their own names, even though Baldeo had supplied the funds and these individuals did not provide any of their own money or reimburse him for these donations.
The release said that as part of this scheme, Baldeo gave each such donor, a campaign contribution card in which he or she wrote their particulars and the amount of money they supposedly donated to the Baldeo campaign.
After learning that the FBI was investigating the matter, the release said Baldeo obstructed the investigation by ordering some of the straw donors to provide false information to, or not cooperate with, the FBI agents.
In one case, the release said, after Baldeo learnt that one straw donor was going to refuse to lie, a threatening letter was faxed from Baldeo’s office to the office of this straw donor’s attorney. Further, a co-conspirator of Baldeo’s made false allegations to the New York City Administration for Children’s Services that this straw donor was abusing his grandchild.
Each of the counts Baldeo was convicted on carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
