A Queens man was busted for conspiring to murder Guyanese immigrants – including his nephew – to collect hundreds of thousands of dollars from their insurance, authorities say.
Ronald Mallay, arrested yesterday, allegedly schemed with a Queens insurance agent to target immigrants in the murder-for-hire plot, investigators said.
One victim, Basdeo Somaipersaud, was discovered dead from an OD of alcohol and an antipsychotic drug in a park in Richmond Hill, Queens, on Jan. 23, 1998.
The following year, Mallay’s nephew, Hardeo “Rawan” Swenanan, died after ingesting a mixture of alcohol and ammonia on June, 8, 1999, in Guyana.
An ongoing investigation by the NYPD and INS revealed that Mallay and insurance agent Richard James, both Guyanese-born U.S. citizens, “engaged in a scheme to insure the lives of several Guyanese individuals, murder these individuals and collect the resulting insurance proceeds,” according to the criminal complaint.
A law-enforcement source said the pair preyed on downtrodden alcoholics. Secretly recorded conversations caught James recommending that a hit man use a mix of alcohol and sedatives to kill one of the victims, court papers say. “The higher the dose, the better,” James allegedly says. “No marks or nothing like that.”
James allegedly wrote insurance policies for Swenanan, naming Mallay as a beneficiary, and for Somaipersaud, naming James’ sister Virma Kassim and friend Satyanand Arjun as beneficiaries.
James wrote insurance policies for more than 10 years, working with several companies, including Met Life. Investigators said Mallay collected $300,000, and Kassim at least $85,000.
A cooperator told investigators that in 1998, Mallay offered him $5,000 to kill Somaipersaud, but he turned it town. Mallay allegedly offered another informant living in Guyana $11,000 to kill Swenanan. This informant also refused, but said Mallay later told him his cousins had killed the victim using alcohol and ammonia.
Tapes also show James offered a hit man $25,000 to kill a third man by mixing a sedative with alcohol, court papers show.
James was arrested in June while allegedly trying to flee the country. He pleaded not guilty in Brooklyn federal court, and is in custody with bail set at $1 million bail.
Defense lawyer Steven Zissou said James “is completely innocent.”
Mallay, a former postal worker, was released from prison in 1993 after doing time for stealing mail. He is currently unemployed, living in Woodside, Queens – and driving a luxury Lexus.
His lawyer, Richard Rosenkranz, declined comment.