Ed Ahmad’s sentencing delayed due to oversight

Nov 26, 2015 News

Guyana-born US-based businessman, Ed Ahmad, will have to wait another four weeks before his sentence for real estate fraud is handed down by a New York court.

Sentencing postponed four weeks: Ed Ahmad

Ahmad, who reportedly has businesses in Guyana, was set to be sentenced on January 15.
However, US Probation Officer, John Lanigan, on November 19, wrote Judge Dora Irizarry, to explain that due to an oversight in assignment procedures, he was not notified in time for his input into the pre-sentence report until October 9.
Lanigan said that there will not be enough time to gather the information and as such requested the sentence date be pushed back by four weeks.
Judge Irizarry this week gave the Probation Department until this year end to disclose the presentence report.
She also set the sentencing for February 12.
In August, New York court authorities disclosed that almost three years after he pleaded guilty to a mortgage fraud charge in the US, Ahmad’s sentencing was set for January 15.
Prosecutors had managed to use Ahmad as a star witness in a witness tampering case against the businessman’s former friend, ex-Senator, John Sampson.
Sampson was found guilty earlier this year.
The sentencing had been delayed for Ahmad, a well-known businessman in both New York and in Guyana, but in July proceedings was started to bring the matter to closure.
In February 2012, Ahmad reportedly wore a wire, recording Sampson during a meeting. In July, he gave testimony during a four-week trial.
Ahmad is well known to tens of thousands of Guyanese living in the New York area, as he was well connected in the real estate business.
A former policeman in Guyana, he appeared in a New York court before Judge Irizarry in October 2012 and pleaded guilty to one of the ten-count criminal complaints against him, and told the court that his attorney has advised him that there is no viable defence to the charges against him.
In admitting guilt, Ahmad told Judge Irizarry that between January 1995 and January 2009, within the Eastern District of New York and elsewhere, together with others, he knowingly and intentionally conspired to defraud several lending institutions, in a mortgage fraud scheme that lasted almost 15 years.
The United States Attorney’s office said that Ahmad was part of a scheme that defrauded American lending institutions of approximately US$50 million, obtaining approval for mortgages on various properties by falsifying documents submitted to the lending institutions, using a string of straw buyers, and other illegal practices.
In detailing the allegations against the Queens businessman with strong political connections, Judge Irizarry outlined a scheme which had as its victims not only financial institutions, but also many ordinary New Yorkers, most of whom were Guyanese immigrants pursuing the American dream to own their own home, only to find themselves trapped in a real estate scheme, ultimately resulting in them losing their homes in foreclosure proceedings, while Ahmad and his co-conspirators made millions of dollars.
Ahmad’s attorney had signaled intentions to challenge the financial loss attributed to him.
Prosecutors had advised a term of between 121 and 151 months (10 to approximately 13 years) of imprisonment for Ahmad.
Ahmad’s case has attracted much attention from the media in Guyana and in New York.