A murder for insurance scheme that shocked the Guyanese immigrant community in Richmond Hill has taken a macabre twist with three potential witnesses dying or dropping out of sight, Newsday has learned.
By Anthony M. Destefano and Bryan VirasamiThe insurance plot has led to two Guyanese immigrants, insurance agent Richard James and laborer Ronald Mallay, being held without bail on federal racketeering, murder conspiracy and other charges. Both were arrested in September 2002 and face the death penalty if convicted.
James and Mallay have been accused of orchestrating the deaths of at least three people in New York and Guyana in a plot to snare $1 million in life insurance proceeds. An additional death has been mentioned in court documents but has not been charged against the pair. Both men are scheduled to be in federal court in Brooklyn today for a pretrial hearing.
One of the witnesses was a waitress who served Mallay's nephew, Hardeo Sewnanan, the day he died, another dined with Sewnanan that day and the other witness saw three men fatally shoot yet another alleged victim.
Sewnanan was poisoned in June 1999. He died after drinking what investigators believe was alcohol and ammonia during a dinner with Mallay and two others in a Chinese restaurant in Port Mourant, Guyana.
The waitress who served Sewnanan died in a car crash, said U.S.-based sources who did not want to be identified.
In addition, Fred Harpaul, who had dinner with Sewnanan, has dropped out of sight.
None of the sources interviewed said the reported death of the waitress, whose full name was not available, and the missing restaurant patron were tied to wrongdoing. But some sources speculated that Harpaul might have either fled or became a cooperating witness.
Harpaul has not been seen nor has he contacted his family for about three years, said his brother Parmand Harpaul.
In an interview in Port Mourant over the summer, Parmand Harpaul said he was with Sewnanan at the restaurant but left early. When he returned, Parmand Harpaul said, Sewnanan was on the ground either dead or unconscious.
Parmand Harpaul wouldn't say that Fred Harpaul poisoned Sewnanan but admitted that his conduct the day of the incident raised suspicion.
In particular, Parmand Harpaul said, his brother wanted him to stay longer at the restaurant, something in retrospect he indicated was aimed at implicating him in the poisoning.
"My brother really wanted to tie me up," he said.
The third witness, Shivraj Pirtan, or "Sanjay," was found hanged about seven months after he saw the fatal shooting of Alfred Gobin in January 1996. Investigators said there was more than one insurance policy on Gobin's life.
Attorney Steve Zissou, who represents James, and Ephraim Savitt, who is defending Mallay, declined to comment. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Tracy Dayton and Peter Katz couldn't be reached for comment.
