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“Cash jet” pilot laundered US$7.5M in Guyana – U.S. Prosecutors
The two planes that the US prosecutors have gone after.
A Guyana-born businessman dubbed the “cash jet” pilot, from Ringwood, New Jersey, has found himself in deeper trouble.
Yesterday, he appeared before a federal judge on charges that he brought several kilos of cocaine into New Jersey and New York, then laundered more than US$7.5M (G$1.5B) in proceeds back to Guyana.
Khamraj Lall, 50, was indicted by a federal grand jury on conspiracy charges following his July 2015 arrest in connection with what authorities said was a five-kilo load carried on his plane, according to a report by the North Passaic Daily Voice on the court case.
Lall, who at the time was facing charges in Puerto Rico of carrying US$600,000 in drug money in his plane, has remained in federal custody since then, Acting U.S. Attorney William E. Fitzpatrick said.
Eight co-defendants from Rochester, N.Y., also were arrested at the time.
Authorities identified them as Edward Mighty, Seymour Brown, Andre Taylor, Ricardo Bailey, Robert Wilson, Kenneth Harper, Desmond Bice and Christopher Samuels.
Mighty, they said, headed a Rochester-based drug-trafficking ring.
Lall had leased space at the Timehri airport in Guyana and built a private hangar for his two jets. The government of Guyana has since taken back the land.
Lall owns Kaylees gas station, on the East Bank Demerara, and had operated a limousine service in Guyana too.
Lall deposited, or had others deposit, roughly US$7,549,775 into more than 20 different bank accounts in cash through 1,287 transactions of under US$10,000 to circumvent federal banking reporting laws from April 2011 through November 2014, Fitzpatrick said.
The U.S. government is looking to forfeit several properties, as well as two private jets that Fitzpatrick said Lall bought with the ill-gotten gains.
Fitzpatrick credited special agents and task force officers of the DEA’s New York Division, as well as IRS-Criminal Investigation and Morristown police.
Handling the case are Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jonathan M. Peck, Barry A. Kamar, and Melissa M. Wangenheim of Fitzpatrick’s Organized Crime/Drug Enforcement Task Force Unit, along with Assistant U.S. Attorneys Peter Gaeta and Sarah Devlin of the Asset Forfeiture-Money Laundering Unit and Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert A. Marangola of the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Western District of New York.
The case has been garnering much attention here, as Lall was popular in Guyana, even flying former President Donald Ramotar on occasions.
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Guyana was running mafia style the past 23 years , given the blessing of the favorite passages of that jet ,we don’t want them ever again
Guyana still running mafia style