‘Cash jet’ pilot attracts money laundering probe in Guyana
Guyanese-born embattled pilot, Khamraj Lall, who is facing jail and forfeiture of properties in the US for drug smuggling, is out on bail but his troubles are far from over. He managed to secure a USD1M bail last month, pledging two New Jersey properties. According to court documents, Lall was appointed a third party custodian, subjected to home incarceration with electronic monitoring, the surrender of all passports and restricted to travel in the state of New Jersey. He was also ordered to surrender his pilot’s license and signed over a USD150,000 home equity line of credit to help secure his bail. In 2016, Puerto Rico, a jurisdiction of the US, forfeited one plane and USD620,000 in cash that he had stashed in his plane. In Guyana, the police Special Organised Crime Unit reportedly is looking at Lall’s interest in Guyana.
He is reportedly the owner of Kaylees Gas Station, East Bank Demerara and had operated a limo service.
There have been questions about a number of heavy duty equipment which was contracted to two large scale gold mines. These are parked at the gas station. However, the operator had insisted he was only renting the property and had no relations with Lall. SOCU would be trying to determine whether Lall laundered his monies in Guyana, in properties.
He is believed to have laundered USD7.5M in Guyana, according to US court documents. Prior to his high profile arrest in 2014, the pilot also got permission under the previous government to build a hangar at the Timehri airport for his two jets. He reportedly even flew former President Bharrat Jagdeo. The Government of Guyana has since taken the hangar, saying the pilot breached his lease.
After his arrest for the cash smuggling, Lall was later detained again and refused bail until last month.
He was accused of smuggling several kilos of cocaine into New Jersey and New York, then laundering more than USD7.5M (G$1.5B) in proceeds back to Guyana.
Lall, 51, was indicted by a federal grand jury on conspiracy charges following his July 2015 arrest in connection with what authorities said was a five-kilo load carried on his plane. Eight co-defendants from Rochester, NY, also were arrested at the time. Authorities identified them as Edward Mighty, Seymour Brown, Andre Taylor, Ricardo Bailey, Robert Wilson, Kenneth Harper, Desmond Bice and Christopher Samuels.
Mighty, they said, headed a Rochester-based drug-trafficking ring.
Lall was also being investigated in the US for laundering cash in separate banks, hiding the transactions by depositing a little here and a little there. Lall deposited, or had others deposit, roughly USD7,549,775 into more than 20 different bank accounts in cash through 1,287 transactions of under USD10,000 to circumvent federal banking reporting laws from April 2011 through November 2014, investigators said. The case has been garnering much attention here, as Lall was popular in Guyana.
(Kaieteur News)