Submitted by Rickford Burke
Brooklyn, New York: United States FBI Agents yesterday forcibly dragged Queens Guyanese-American Realtor and businessman, Ed Ahmad, off a Delta Airlines flight that was bound for Guyana, and arrested him on mortgage fraud charges.
Ahmad is a close political ally of Guyana’s President Bharrat Jagdeo and a top financier of Jagdeo’s ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP).
Ahmad, who owns major businesses in Guyana including, Building Materials and Appliances Depot and the entire Leonora Estate Management residence compound, which the Bharrat Jagdeo administration ostensibly sold to him below market value, is also a person of interest in at least one other ongoing FBI probe. Reports are that “Ahmad had already boarded Delta Flight 383 at JFK International Airport heading to Guyana when Federal agents boarded the aircraft and forcibly removed him in handcuffs.”
The US Justice Department in a criminal complaint filed in the Eastern District of New York alleges that “Ahmad conducted an extensive scheme to commit mortgage fraud; regularly lying about applicants’ income and using straw buyers to conceal his involvement.” He was released on $2.5 million bail.
Media accounts in New York indicate that His lawyer, Steven Kartagner, refused to reveal whether Ahmad was in discussions with the FBI and prosecutors before he attempted to flee to Guyana.
According to NY Net News “Over the last 24 months, the FBI has made a number of arrests in New York’s little Guyana (Richmond Hill/Ozone Park, Queens). Guyanese realtors it seems have been neck deep in running various mortgage schemes in the U.S. Ed Ahmad who holds an office on Liberty Ave, Richmond Hill, Queens.”
This the second key ally of President Jagdeo and top financier of his ruling party that has been nabbed by US law enforcement. Close Presidential ally, Roger Khan, was in 2007 arrested by US authorities and charged with drug trafficking and witness tampering. He was convicted and is currently serving a 15 year sentence in the US.
Reached for a comment on Ahmad’s arrest and its impact on the Jagdeo government, a New York based Caribbean political analyst observed that “the noose is tightening around the corrupt PPP cabal.” He asserted that “the intricate web of corruption and criminality that has been tightly woven around President Jagdeo is being systematically unravelled and that the long arms of justice is inevitable for those who operate as if they are above the law and act with impunity and inordinate arrogance in so doing.”
Reports are that a number of Queens based Guyanese-American Realtors and other professionals have suddenly and seemingly hurriedly returned to Guyana, allegedly under the guise of working for the PPP. Many observers now question if their motive for returning to Guyana is avoiding prosecution for possible mortgage and bank fraud.
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