Guyanese businessman Ed Ahmad, who has been indicted in New York over a US$50 million mortgage fraud, is expected to plead guilty early next month, according to court documents seen by this newspaper.
According to a letter to presiding Judge Dora Irizarry, seen by this newspaper and which was filed yesterday by Assistant United States Attorney Alexander Solomon, Ahmad’s case was adjourned yesterday to October 10 for a “guilty plea.”
As a result, Solomon said that the prosecution and the defence are requesting that time be excluded from the speedy trial computation between September 21 and October 20 for “the purpose of permitting the parties to finalise their plea negotiations.”
Another letter written to Judge Irizarry by Solomon on Wednesday asks for the scheduled status conference today to be postponed, since after “extensive plea negotiations, the parties have reached tentative agreement as to a proposed pretrial resolution.”
Before this latest development Ahmad’s trial was scheduled to begin in November.
Ahmad was detained last year July on charges that he operated a US$50 million mortgage-fraud scheme in Queens, New York. He faces a maximum of 30 years in jail. He is currently on US$2.5 million bail.
Ahmad’s case has attracted great interest in Guyana because of his close ties to former president Bharrat Jagdeo. Ahmad had shipped a container of goods to Jagdeo at State House and many questions were asked about this.
Three alleged co-conspirators—Ahmad’s cricket friends and employees—were also indicted in an associated case last year, court records show. Queens-based brokers Qayaam Farrouq, Mohamed Gurmohamed and Guyanese cricketer Steve Massiah were charged with defrauding banks and mortgage companies by falsifying mortgage-loan applications to make borrowers appear more creditworthy to financial institutions, court records show.
The matter against Massiah has since been dismissed without prejudice.
