From Guyana Times

While the talk of “cold cases” is in the air after President Donald Ramotar’s admonition to the Police, there is one “hot” case that is about to be concluded. It is the high-profile case from 2013 that had all the elements of an object lesson in fraud and greed.

It concerns the US$4 million estate of an 83-year-old recluse Yusuf Mongroo, four Wills that the man was supposed to have made while on his deathbed, supposedly disinheriting his two daughters and giving all his wealth to his maid and an employee from his business.

But more titillating, the case involves high profile lawyer Ralph Ramkarran, SC, being accused by the even higher profile Khemraj Ramjattan of being knowingly involved in perpetuating a fraudulent Will.

Since all the submissions have been made but one, Guyana should soon be given a decision by the judge but since the lawyers are politicians involved in the ongoing elections, it is feared that the decision may be put off.

Yusuf’s daughter, Sherene Mongroo-Parisi, who is contesting the will because she claims the will is fraudulent told this newspaper this weekend that she believes believes that “justice delayed is justice denied”.

The case was precipitated when Yusuf passed away at the St Joseph’s Mercy Hospital on August 15, 2010.

He was the owner of Horseshoe Racing Service in Georgetown, where one Sasedai Kumarie Persaud worked as a cashier. He also operated similar services in Barbados. He was a very rich man, but lived a reclusive life.

The aged man had been hospitalised at Woodlands Hospital, from July 20, 2010 and was discharged on August 1, 2010. At his home, where he only had a housekeeper, Indranie Mulchand, his condition became critical and he was admitted to St Joseph’s on August 9, 2010.

He developed a cerebral edema (“fluids in and swelling of his brain”) and other serious medical complications that caused his death within a week. Mulchand did not inform Yusuf’s daughters who lived overseas of his condition.image1

Right after his death, two Wills surfaced in Guyana − both allegedly made on August 12 and both witnessed by two doctors from St Joseph’s Mercy Hospital.

An attorney-at-law said that he prepared one of the Wills after Yusuf had summoned him to the hospital after being admitted. He said that Yusuf had been his client for nearly 30 years.

The looting of the estate did not stop with the forgery of Wills in Guyana. The greed and avarice of the conspirators who would defraud the rightful heirs of the fortune of Yusuf went after monies that were stashed away in the tax-haven locale of Cayman Islands.image2

A US$4 million cheque (exactly US$4,391,851) was written in Guyana, drawn on First Caribbean International Bank (FCIB) in the Cayman. (See below) It was evidently a blank cheque signed by Yusuf but filled out by Persaud in her handwriting and made out to herself, purportedly on August 3, 2010 right after he was discharged from Woodlands and held incommunicado at his home at New Market Street. The “s” in the “August” differs significantly from the “s” in the signature “Yusuf”.

This cheque was presented to FCIB in Cayman on September 13, 2010 endorsed in Persaud’s handwriting at the back to a partner in a law firm in Barbados, Malcolm William Deane. E-mails produced by Sherene show that Ramkarran, the lawyer for Persaud, communicated with Deane to negotiate the cheque through its account in a Barbados Bank.

The illegality did not even have to do with the authenticity of the cheque, but that Ramkarran arranged for its clearing in full knowledge that the maker had died. The mandate of all such cheques expires on the death of the drawer.

However, the cheque was returned by the Barbados Bank to FCIB in Cayman on the grounds of insufficient liquid funds in Yusuf’s current account: the bulk of his funds being kept in a certificate of deposit. Ramkarran allegedly knew of how much money Yusuf’s Cayman account had – he bungled in not finding out whether it was all liquid.

Ramkarran and his client Persaud have been stymied in their attempt to defraud the estate of Yusuf. But they were not about to give up. The money was just too much.

Cayman caper

Ramkarran, enlisted the help of Ali Mudeen, the then Managing Director of ATC Trustees (Cayman) Limited, to gain unauthorised access to the funds in the Cayman account at FCIB. Mudeen had once been an employee of Ramkarran in his law office of “Cameron And Shepherd” in Guyana.

Cayman is the second largest tax haven in the world, and US President Barrack Obama explicitly named it in the US efforts to curb the activities of this “shadow banking” centre, that is expert in the art of laundering funds. image3

Even though Ramkarran constantly professed to be “just the attorney for Persaud”, the document above shows that Ramkarran formed a Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) with Mudeen and Persaud.

It is against all the Canons of Legal Ethics for lawyers to engage in this type of activity with a current client on a matter in which he is the legal representative. The JVA was formed to facilitate the acquisition of a banking account in St Lucia that would receive the funds from the FCIB in Cayman by laundering it through the Bahamas.

Mudeen’s role was to facilitate the second attempt to withdraw the funds from his account in the Cayman. With his background in Cayman Island “financial services” industry, this was not difficult to do.

It involved the production of a third Will produced by a Trinidadian cousin of Sherene, allegedly made by Yusuf on August 6, 2010, and expressed to be limited to his assets in the Cayman Islands. This would have been three days after the cheque was supposedly made out to Sherene to clean out the account.

It was not presented to FCIB until or about January 28, 2011, by which time the first attempt had failed and enough time would have been available to make another, more elaborate attempt.

A Caymanian woman, Debra Mary Rankin, a low level airline employee purporting to be the executrix of the probated Will presented herself to the Cayman FCIB. The “probate” in Guyana was shown to be fraudulent. A Cayman court broke several of its rules to certify that the Will was valid.

The woman, since arrested by Cayman Police, instructed FCIB to wire transfer the balance of US$4,399,237.28 in Yusuf’s account to the Bank of The Bahamas for the account of the purported sole beneficiary of his Cayman estate, a mysterious and hitherto unknown Bahamian entity called the “YM Guy-Caribe Foundation”.

This would be typical mechanisms to launder money and known to financial operators like Mudeen. By this time, the certificate of deposit had become liquid and the money was transferred.

FCIB complied with this request via its correspondent bank JPMorganChase, ignoring that the so-called “YM Guy-Caribe Foundation” had not been established until November 5, 2010; in other words, almost three months after the Cayman will had purportedly been executed. How could a Will specify a beneficiary that does not exist?

On or about February 1, 2011, the Bank of The Bahamas received the sum of US$4,399,237.28 from JP Morgan Chase Bank, New York, for the account of “YM Guy-Caribe Foundation” account number 1350002508.

Smoking gun

On April 11, 2011, Hari Narayen Ramkarran, aka Ralph Ramkarran, opened an account number 651-968-0 with the Bank of Saint Lucia International Limited (BOSIL). According to a copy of the account application form (see below), Ramkarran was introduced to BOSIL by Mudeen.

According to the witness’ statement to the Barbados Police, the judge* in the Cayman [Islands] that presumably certified the third Will, received US$1 million according to Mudeen, Persaud US$1 million, Ramkarran, $750,000 and Rankin, the purported executrix’s share was in excess of $642,000.

Ramkarran told the bank that the activity over the account would represent “deposits from income and overseas investments” and that the average monthly balance would be US$150,000. The initial deposit to the account of US$20,000 was described as being “repayment by Mudeen of a loan to him”.

Mudeen left or had to leave ATC Trustees (Cayman) Limited, an old-line century old British firm and joined J&T Financial Group – a Czech-Slovak investment group’s J&T Bank and Trust in Barbados. J&T also did business in Cayman.

IMAGES:

Sherene Mongroo

Hari Narayen Ramkarran, aka Ralph Ramkarran

Yusuf Mongroo (left) and Malcolm William Deane

Ali Mudeen

For more on this story go to: http://www.guyanatimesgy.com/2015/03/22/a-tale-of-greed-avarice-and-money-laundering-in-the-caribbean/

EDITOR: *There is NO corroborating evidence that the “judge in the Cayman [Islands] that presumably certified the third Will, received US$1 million according to Mudeen”. iNews Cayman does NOT support this statement in any way. The above has been republished without alteration in text from the article published in Guyana Times.

See iNews Cayman related story published August 28 2013 “Letter to Caribbean News Now Editor” at: http://www.ieyenews.com/wordpress/letter-to-caribbean-news-now-editor/

See also related Caribbean News Now story published July 24 2013 “Stolen Cayman Islands money traced to St Lucia” at: http://www.caribbeannewsnow.com/topstory-Stolen-Cayman-Islands-money-traced-to-St-Lucia-16952.html