News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. Dec. 21, 2012: The founder of the Guyana airline, EZjet Founder, that recently went belly up, is now awaiting extradition to Florida after being charged with wire fraud in a Brooklyn New York Federal Court on Dec. 17th.
Sonny Austin Ramdeo, 35, the Guyana-born, U.S. national, appeared in Court in NYC are being nabbed by the FBI and slapped with wire fraud charges in connection with a $20 million federal payroll tax fraud scheme.
He has, however, entered a non-guilty plea and reserved his bail application until extradition to Florida, where he lives.
The Sunrise resident is expected to be removed to the Southern District of Florida to face the charges.
According to the indictment, from as early as 2005, defendant Ramdeo was employed as the payroll supervisor at Promise Healthcare Inc. and Success Healthcare Group, both of which owned and operated hospital facilities throughout the United States.
As the payroll supervisor for these two companies, Ramdeo was responsible for overseeing the payment of bi-weekly wages and related payroll taxes for more than 3,500 employees.
To execute his scheme, Ramdeo allegedly incorporated PayServ Tax Inc. and thereafter represented to officers and employees of Promise Healthcare that PayServ Tax would handle the transfer of local, state, and federal payroll taxes to the proper agencies on behalf of Promise Healthcare and Success Healthcare. In fact, however, Ramdeo allegedly kept the money paid by Promise and Success Healthcare to PayServ for his personal use.
The EZjet began a Guyana to NY direct run as a low cost alternative to Caribbean Airlines and Delta earlier this year. It later expanded to Toronto.
The airline, however, was closed after suspension of service by the U.S. Department of Transport in November and allegations of embezzlement by the company’s founder and chief executive officer.
Guyana Transport Minister Robeson Benn says the government will be refunding EZjet passengers who purchased tickets in Guyana using the US$200,000 bond that the now-suspended airline had to lodge.
