By Alex Davidson
Federal investigators were examining every policy ever written by a prominent Guyanese immigrant who was an insurance agent on Liberty Avenue in Ozone Park and is accused of participating in a murder-for-hire insurance scam, a prosecutor said Tuesday.
Richard James, 42, who worked for the Guardian Life Insurance Co. of America and had an office in Ozone Park, was charged with conspiracy to commit murder along with Ronald Mallay, 57, in federal court in Brooklyn.
The two are accused of insuring their Guyanese friends and family, listing themselves or their accomplices as beneficiaries, and then murdering the insured to collect the benefits, authorities said.
“We’re going to examine his entire portfolio,” Assistant U.S. Attorney John Curran said. “We’re looking at all the insurance policies he wrote and he didn’t only write for MetLife.”
James also wrote insurance policies for Guardian Life Insurance from August 2000 until August 2002.
Federal authorities have linked the two men to the deaths of Basdeo Somaipersaud in January 1998, and Hardeo (Rawan) Sewanna, Mallay’s nephew, in June 1999.
James is being held without bail. James’ girlfriend, Malini Ramnarine, was charged Friday with insurance fraud, Curran said.
Ramnarine, who has three children with James, was later released on bail, according to a published report.
Curran revealed details of the alleged plot during a Brooklyn federal court bail hearing Sept. 11 for Ronald Mallay, one of the defendants in the case. Investigators had searched the apartment of Mallay’s wife, Lazina, and found additional suspicious insurance policies with links to the defendants, Curran said.
In the complaint filed in Brooklyn federal court, Curran said the scheme was extensive and that “others, not yet identified, committed and participated in the charged murders.”
It went on to say “in this scheme the participants falsely insure the lives of several Guyanese individuals, many of whom were unemployed men with substance-abuse problems, and murder these individuals to collect the … insurance proceeds.”
Investigators are reviewing a total of 21 what were termed “unusual” policies James issued in a short time while writing policies for MetLife, a MetLife spokeswoman said last week.
Curran also told the federal court of an insurance policy investigators found worth $1.5 million and belonging to an unknown individual but listing the defendant, Ronald Mallay, as a beneficiary, the New York Post reported.
The man, who allegedly sells clothes at a flea market, has yet to be found, the prosecutor said.
Federal investigators also said Monday that several deaths once suspected as accidents are now being considered potential “offings” in relation to the insurance scheme, the Post reported.
The next court hearing for James and Mallay is scheduled for Sept. 30, Curran said.
Reach reporter Alex Davidson by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 156.
