R.H. Scammers Duped Local Immigrants
Three members of a Richmond Hill family have been collectively sentenced to up to 418 years in prison for defrauding 19 individuals-mostly members of the borough’s West Indian community-out of more than $1.8 million over a nearly six-year period by promising to assist them in obtaining “federally seized” properties in Florida and Queens at cheap prices or to assist them in gaining legal status in this country.
The defendants were identified by Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown as Shane Ramsundar, 52, his wife, Gomatee Ramsundar, 48, and their daughter, Shantal Ramsundar, 24, all of 120th Street in South Richmond
Hill.
The Ramsundars were convicted in November of second- and third-degree grand larceny, first- and seconddegree money laundering, first-degree criminal impersonation and first-degree scheme to defraud following a nearly three-month jury trial before Queens Supreme Court Justice Kenneth C. Holder, who sentenced the defendants last Wednesday, Jan. 11.
Shane Ramsundar was sentenced to 78 1/3 to 235 years in prison and ordered to make $1.8 million in restitution. Gomatee Ramsundar was sentenced to 51 to 153 years in prison and fined a total of $221,090.
Their daughter, Shantal Ramsundar, was sentenced to 10 to 30 years in prison and fined a total of $182,180.
In carrying out their scheme, Brown stated, the family falsely held the father out as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent on loan to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) or Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) and as a devoutly religious Pandit.
“This family deviously took advantage of their fellow immigrants as they sought the American Dream. The damage caused by the defendants was severe and long lasting- in some instances they plundered the life savings of people who placed their trust in them,” Brown said. “The harm was not only financial but emotional, as well. This case also sadly marks the downfall of a family-the defendants-who threw away their future to satisfy their greed.”
“The Port Authority Police Department has had great investigative success over the years when partnering with the Queens District Attorney. The conviction in this case highlights another example of investigative and case management excellence,” added Port Authority Police Department Superintendent Michael A. Fedorko. “Participating detectives, supervisors, and support personnel from both agencies through hard work and professionalism brought before the court an iron clad case against this unscrupulous family criminal enterprise.”
According to trial testimony, the three Ramsundars claimed that Shane was a federal agent-complete with a real-looking gun, a badge and false ID card-and a deeply religious Pandit, who could obtain cheap government seized real estate properties in Florida and Ozone Park, Richmond Hill and Jamaica.
In particular, the two elder Ramsundars claimed that the government allowed their special agents first option to buy the properties seized from tax evaders and drug dealers cheaply prior to their public auction.
Shane Ramsundar then told his victims that he would purchase properties and obtain mortgages for them with his special government connections and then transfer the deeds over to them and they could live in the residences or re-sell them at great profit. Checks were laundered through eleven different bank accounts- eight belonging to Shantal Ramsundar and three belonging to the family’s race car repair company, Baba Boost Racing, Inc., of Long Island City, of which Shantal Ramsundar is the president and Gomatee Ramsundar is the manager.
In total, the Ramsundars received a total of more than $1.5 million from eleven victims.
Furthermore, in carrying out the immigration portion of their scheme, Shane Ramsundar again posed as an ICE/FBI agent and convinced victims that he could use his insider access to get people green cards, have them removed from deportation lists and even get them off “terrorist watch lists” in exchange for sums of money.
Gomatee Ramsundar aided her husband by convincing some of the victims that he could obtain the necessary immigration documents and was present when some of the victims turned over their money. Shantal Ramsundar also aided in the scheme by holding her father out as an FBI agent and by cashing checks and laundering substantial amounts of the proceeds through bank accounts in her name.
In total, the Ramsundars received more than $300,000 from 12 victims, some of whom were victimized in the defendants’ real estate scheme.
Court-authorized search warrants executed at the family’s residence and storage locker resulted in the recovery of contracts and five realistic looking air guns.
The case against the Ramsundars was initiated when its victims read press reports in August 2009 about the sentencing of Port Authority janitorial worker Nazim (Tony) Hosein.
As previously reported, Hosein had defrauded five members of the West Indies community by promising to expedite and produce legitimate green cards and other U.S. documents after collecting a total of nearly $100,000 from them.
As a result of that unrelated case, the victims in the instant case contacted the Port Authority police with information about Shane Ramsundar, who was arrested in September 2009 on similar charges.
The investigation was conducted by Port Authority Police Department Detectives Dewan Maharaj and Curt King, under the supervision of Inspector Brian Sullivan, and the overall supervision of Chief Anthony Fitzgerald.
Assistant District Attorneys Catherine C. Kane, chief of the District Attorney’s Airport Investigations Unit, prosecuted the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Gerard A. Brave, Rackets bureau chief, and Mark L. Katz, deputy bureau chief, and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney of the Investigations Division Peter A. Crusco and Deputy Executive Assistant District Attorney for Investigations Linda M. Cantoni.
