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Guyanese found guilty in US insurance/murder scheme
BROOKLYN, USA- A jury in a Brooklyn court last week returned a verdict of guilty in the case of two Guyanese men, Ronald Mallay and Richard James, who were accused in an insurance for murder scheme.
Speaking to Hardbeat News moments after the verdict came in, Michael Bachrach, one of the defense attorneys for Ronald Mallay, revealed that his client was convicted on all charges.
Mallay was found guilty of murdering Alfred Gobin in 1996 in Guyana, and Basdeo Somaipersaud, Hardeo Sewnanan and Vernon Peter in 1993 in Woodside.
(Left) Ronald Mallay and Richard James both found guilty and now face the death penalty
Mallay’s defense attorney, disclosed the men are upset, but still maintain their innocence. “It is probable that we’ll file an appeal once the penalty phase is over,” said Bachrach immediately following the jury’s announcement.
Mallay, 60, had faced several charges, including murder in the first degree, conspiracy to murder and kidnap, racketeering and murder, frauds and swindles, conspiracy to defraud the United States and money laundering and interstate commerce.
The prosecution had claimed that Mallay “knowingly and intentionally conspired to travel and cause another to travel in foreign commerce and use and caused others to use the mail and other facilities in interstate commerce, with intent that a murder be committed.
Mallay’s co-conspirator, Richard James, was convicted on the charge that he murdered Basdeo Somaipersaud in Smokey Oval Park, Richmond Hill. He also was found guilty of racketeering.
But he was acquitted of the murder of Guyana-based Hardeo Sewnanan.
MetLife discovered the scheme after noticing that 21 death claims had been filed from policies written by James within a few years. The rate “was approximately 318 percent higher than expected (and) … a large number of deaths were violent or under unusual circumstances,” court papers said.
MetLife fired James in July 2000 and notified authorities. He was subsequently put under surveillance. In 2002, investigators caught him on audiotape trying to pay an informant $25,000 to kill another victim with a mix of alcohol and drugs to collect insurance, court papers said. Several of the witnesses in the Sewnanan case have been killed or have gone missing.
During the trial, jurors heard James stating, “The mistake that bin Laden did the other day when he send a — — plane at … Rockaway, I wanted him to send it at Liberty Avenue from Lefferts to 130th Street.
James is alleged to have made the remark after boasting that he had taken out US$15M worth of insurance policies on many people in Richmond Hill, a predominantly Indo-Guyanese community in Queens, NY.
The plane crash he was apparently referring to was the crash of American Airlines Flight 587 in Belle Harbor on November 12, 2001.
The conversations were part of a number he had with Derrick Hassan, a government informant unknown to James. Hassan was the prosecution’s main witness and testified that James offered him US$25,000 to kill a man.
James, meanwhile, was also heard talking about what investigators claim was a planned hit on Jon Narensingh. He and Hassan are heard discussing how to get Narensingh to take a lethal mix of alcohol and sleeping pills.
“Whatever is more, the higher the dose is better,” James was heard saying in the conversation recorded on a May, 2002. “When the autopsy comes it will show alcohol and drugs. The man is a bum so nobody (would know) … you understand what I mean?”
Both defendants have been jailed since 2002. Sentencing will be September 17, Bachrach said. “This has been a very difficult case from the very beginning,” Bachrach added. “We will continue to fight through the penalty phase and do whatever we can so that justice is served with mercy.” (Hardbeatnews.com)
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