Two years jail for Ed Ahmad; ordered to repay US$2.6M to victims

Apr 22, 2017 News

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It took almost six years. The court case of Queens-based Edul Ahmad is over with a Brooklyn federal judge yesterday sentencing him to two years in jail and for him to pay restitution of US$2.6M.

It was not the non-custodial sentence that Ahmad, a former policeman from Guyana who made it big in New York, wanted despite being a star witness in the sinking of a powerful New York senator, John Sampson.
It would mark the end of a real estate mogul who made it big in the US but whose rise was also mirrored by his rapid fall.
He became one of the biggest names in New York real estate business with fancy cars, properties and with his tentacles stretching to Guyana and friends including senators and congress representatives and even former President of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo.
Today, he can no longer work in the real estate business, thanks to the order made by Judge Dora Irizarry yesterday in the Brooklyn, New York court.
The court found that he oversaw a US$50M fraud scheme that allowed ineligible Guyanese and especially immigrants to own homes in New York.
Many of them lost their homes and saw their credit ratings going to zero because of fraud.
Yesterday, after months of delays, Judge Dora Irizarry sentenced Ahmad to 24 months in custody with five years of supervised release.
Ahmad will have to comply with a forfeiture order and pay a number of financial institutions and mortgage companies US$2.6M.
He will also be forced to make a full financial disclosure and not ever work again in the mortgage industry.
He will also be banned from possessing a firearm and will have to maintain lawful and verifiable employment.
The judge did not impose a fine as he was ordered to pay restitution.
Ahmad, 50, will serve time in a jail near New York City and has until June 30, 2017 to surrender to authorities to begin his sentence.
The defendant, during his sentencing yesterday, was also advised of his appellate rights.
Ahmad was dubbed in some New York news reports yesterday as a “onetime Lamborghini-driving businessman”.
This month, the judge, who had also sentenced Guyana’s convicted drug kingpin, Shaheed ‘Roger’

Khan to a US jail, has been especially stern on prosecutors and Ahmad’s lawyer, Steven Kartagener, for delays, insisting that sentencing had to happen yesterday.
US prosecutors had recommended that he pay back over US$3M to several mortgage lending institutions that fell victim to his fraud scheme.
Prosecutors also recommended that the courts not be too harsh as Ahmad had cooperated in another court case which saw the successful prosecution of a US senator.
In October 2012, Ahmad pleaded guilty in a Brooklyn, New York court, to one of a 10-count criminal complaint against him.
In admitting guilt, Ahmad told Judge Dora 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 offence had carried a maximum term of imprisonment of 30 years. U.S. Attorney Alexander Solomon had recommended that he be sentenced to between 121 and 151 months (10 to approximately 13 years) of imprisonment.
In their sentencing recommendations to Judge Irizarry, prosecutors explained that beginning in 2000, the defendant and other co-conspirators defrauded various lending institutions by obtaining mortgages on properties located in the Eastern District of New York and elsewhere through fraudulent means, including by falsifying mortgage loan applications.
That false information made the borrowers appear to be more creditworthy. As a result, the financial institutions were fraudulently induced to issue mortgage loans.
In some instances, the co-conspirators recruited individuals- “Straw Buyers”- to conceal the true ownership of the properties. In other instances, the co-conspirators recruited prospective home purchasers with good credit scores but with income and assets that were insufficient to secure mortgage loans.
Prosecutors alleged that Ahmad, as the mastermind, was part of a scheme that defrauded American lending institutions of approximately US$50 million.
Prosecutors had painted a picture of Ahmad as a powerful businessman known in the Guyanese community in New York with strong political connections.

Victims
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.
To conceal these facts from the lenders, members of the conspiracy falsified Department of Housing and Urban Development forms in order to deceive the lenders about disbursements at closings.
On July 21, 2011, the defendant was arrested pursuant to a criminal complaint charging him with conspiracy to commit bank fraud.
On October 13, 2012, Ahmad pleaded guilty, in a deal, to charges of bank and wire fraud conspiracy. As part of his agreement, he agreed to pay US$500,000 before the date of his sentencing. To date, the defendant only paid US$29,662.18, prosecutors said in their documents.
The court documents were explosive. It was disclosed in late fall of 2011, the defendant agreed to meet with the government, and provide information about his own role in the mortgage fraud conspiracy, as well as information regarding his friend, New York State Senator, John Sampson, who was then the Senate Minority Leader.

Sinking a Senator
The defendant described a longstanding quid pro quo relationship in which the defendant provided money or gifts to Sampson, including foreign travel arrangements, in return for official acts by Sampson that benefitted the defendant’s real estate and mortgage businesses.
For example, on multiple occasions, Sampson attempted to interfere with New York State regulatory investigations of the defendant’s businesses by meeting directly with the investigators or with the investigators’ supervisors.
Most notably, Ahmad described a 2006 payment of US$188,500 to Sampson that Sampson claimed was necessary to replenish embezzled funds in connection with his failed run in 2005 to become the Kings County District Attorney. In return for this secret payment, Sampson engaged in additional official acts on the defendant’s behalf, including successful efforts to arrange for the defendant to become an official broker of bank-owned real estate properties in New York State.
According to the defendant, Sampson’s behaviour changed drastically following the defendant’s arrest in this matter. While initially seeming supportive of the defendant’s plight, Sampson met continuously with the defendant to discuss the merits of the pending criminal case.
Ahmad even agreed to participate in recorded meetings and phone conversations with Sampson and his associates. During these meetings and phone calls, Sampson’s recorded statements corroborated information provided by the defendant to the government about his efforts to obstruct justice.
Sampson, from Guyana, was later charged and convicted.
According to prosecutors, Ahmad’s testimony was highly critical to sinking the senator who was recently jailed for five years.
However, prosecutors also accused Ahmad of not being truthful about a number of things.
For example, he lied about his income. During his testimony on cross-examination, the defendant testified about his tax returns for 2006 and 2010, which reported income of approximately $51,000 and $23,300 in income, respectively.
”…The defendant provided substantial assistance to the government. For these reasons, the government respectfully moves pursuant to Section 5K1.1 of the United States Sentencing Guidelines to permit the Court, in its discretion, to sentence the defendant below the applicable Guidelines range.”
Ahmad has businesses in Guyana and had planned to build a hotel and casino, overlooking the army headquarters, in Thomas Lands.
He was said to be a close friend of former President Bharrat Jagdeo, and had even shipped a container of building materials to him.

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