-airline denies plane grounded
EZjet founder Sonny Ramdeo has stepped down from his post as Chief Executive Officer in the wake of a lawsuit by his former employer accusing him of embezzlement, and the airline last evening denied that its plane was grounded in Guyana for failing to pay its fuel bill.
A statement yesterday from EZjet said Ramdeo stepped down to remove any doubt about the “viability” of the airline.
The statement quoted Ramdeo as saying “since my former bosses are themselves in court over diversion of over $550 million dollars of company funds, they elected to claim ignorance and innocence when it came to coming clean about the investment. Instead, they alleged that I diverted funds to EZjet, which I did not”. He said that further information on this could be found at http://foundingpartnerslimitedpartners.com.
He added that “In the interest of removing all doubt about the viability of EZjet for which I have worked tirelessly during the past 1-1/2 years to establish, I am removing myself from EZjet management, until this embarrassing matter has been cleared up and my good name has been restored”.
Ramdeo is facing a civil suit in the United States that his former employers filed, accusing him of devising a “sophisticated scheme of fraud and deception” to embezzle some US$5.4 million from them.
Reports out of the US state that Promise Healthcare and 11 of its hospitals brought the suit against Ramdeo, their former payroll manager who they hired eight years ago to manage the payroll for 3,500 employees in hospitals nationwide.
Named along with Ramdeo as plaintiffs in the suit are EZJet GT and PayServ Tax, a company that Ramdeo allegedly set up to commit the fraud.
Yesterday’s statement said that while EZjet seeks a replacement for Ramdeo, Rosalinda Rasul, presently head of station for Georgetown will hold the title of acting CEO. It said that Rasul will be backed by EZjet’s advisory board members who cumulatively have more than 200 years of airline experience.
The statement said that EZjet continues to operate its regular wide body B767 flights between Georgetown and New York, Port of Spain and Toronto.
It disclosed that EZjet is also adding a second B767 for flights during the Christmas season and will maintain its policy of fresh onboard meals and two free bags at 60 lbs each.
Meanwhile, there were reports yesterday evening that an EZjet flight bound for Toronto with just 11 passengers was grounded because the airline owed Rubis Guyana money for aviation fuel supplied. Persons said too that the plane was taken to the Guyana Defence Force hangar and equated this with seizure of the aircraft.
However, Rasul, speaking with this newspaper last night said that there is no truth in the reports that the airline owes Rubis money. “This is absolute nonsense…we don’t owe Rubis any money,” Rasul said when contacted in Grenada by phone.
She said that because of the paucity of passengers for yesterday’s flight, the airline decided to cancel the flight and consolidate those passengers with others on a later flight.
She said that all of the affected passengers were notified. Rasul noted that the persons who the airline did not call were those for whom the EZjet had no numbers in their database.
She assured that aside from yesterday’s incident, all other flights are planned as per schedule. “There will be no disruptions in our service,” said Rasul.
She confirmed that the aircraft is in Guyana and though she was not in a position to be certain, she said that the plane most likely would have had to move to another location – such as the GDF hangar – since there are only four places to accommodate planes at the apron and staying in that position would be ill-advised.
Last night, another statement from EZjet’s Management said that an article published on the blog ‘One Voice Can Win’ is inaccurate and irresponsible and that the publishers failed to seek out the airline to verify the facts with the airline prior to publication. “Our aircraft is parked at Georgetown… fully fuelled by Rubis and ready for our next flight. We do not owe any debt to Rubis, their payment is fully current and we have never owed Rubis anywhere near $1 million much less millions. EZjet has no creditors other than regular airport vendors providing routine services where EZjet prepays for services and our accounts are paid current,” the statement said. The statement added that the passengers originally scheduled to leave yesterday for Toronto and return were moved to next Tuesday’s Toronto flight or given the option of a full refund.
“Our flat rate promotion is a weekly benefit offer for frequent travellers. We received no concessions from the PPP/C; former President [Bharrat] Jagdeo has no connections to EZjet, other than we hope to one day have him as a passenger on one of our flights!”
It said that the civil suit against Ramdeo is his private business “and will be settled by him; Sonny is not on his way to the slammer.”
Following disclosure of the suit against Ramdeo and his airline, Director General of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) Zulficar Mohammed said that for now, the private lawsuit brought against Ramdeo in Florida will not have an impact on the airline’s operations, except if further legal action is taken in the United States.
Speaking to Stabroek News yesterday, Mohammed said that regarding whether the money lodged with the Government of Guyana is enough to mitigate against any eventual issues the airline now faces, it must be noted that the airline met all of the requirements prior to commencing operation here. But he said too that should anything happen to cause the airline to be unable to operate in the US, then it would be affected here as well.
Through the suit the hospital chain is seeking damages for fraud, unjust enrichment, conversion, and civil theft and imposition of a constructive trust.
