Details of the investigation surfaced yesterday with the arrest of a Guyanese immigrant from Richmond Hill on charges he participated the killing of two men — one in January 1998 in a Queens park and another in Port Mourant, Guyana, in June 1999.

According to a criminal complaint filed in Brooklyn federal court yesterday, Ronald Mallay, 57, was charged with conspiring in a murder plot involving victims who had been insured through a broker who was part of the scheme.

Mallay and others then collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in insurance proceeds, according to the complaint.

The life insurance policies were procured, federal officials said, through Richard James, described in the complaint as an “insurance account representative working, among other things, in the Guyanese community for several insurance companies” since about 1991.

James, who is being held since his arrest by federal agents in June, is also a producer of a Guyanese cultural program featured on cable. He is well known the Guyanese community.

Steve Zissou, a Bayside attorney defending James said his client denies the charge and expects to prove his innocence at trial.

According to the complaint, Metlife, one of the companies James wrote insurance for, had received an anonymous tip that suggested James was involved in a conspiracy to kill insured people for the proceeds.

The company analyzed policies written by James and found “the rate of death claims of individuals insured under policies written by James was approximately 318 percent higher than expected or by chance and that a large number of the deaths were violent or under unusual circumstances,” the complaint stated.

“(We) expect to have a large number of victims,” said one federal official who asked not to be named.

Because murder-for-hire is alleged, the case could involve the federal death penalty, the official said.

Officials at Metlife could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.

Investigators said the investigation was ongoing and focusing on several other people in the Guyanese community.

For the moment, only Mallay and James have been charged in the plot. Mallay, who was arrested at his wife’s home in Richmond Hill, was held without bail after appearing in court Tuesday.

One of the death’s listed in the complaint filed against Mallay was that of Basdeo Somaipersaud, who was found dead in Smokey Park on Jan. 23, 1998.

While the cause of death was attributed to alcohol and drugs, a confidential informant told authorities that Mallay paid him $5,000 to kill a “drunk” in the park, the complaint stated.

The informant, who refused to participate in the scheme, later learned a drunk had died, the complaint said.

James was the agent on at least two insurance policies written on Somaipersaud’s life and he received some of the proceeds, the complaint stated.

Mallay also allegedly asked the informant if he knew anyone who could kill someone in Guyana for insurance proceeds and was refered to another cooperating witness in that country, investigators said.

Mallay paid the second witness $11,000 for the murder but that witness also declined to carry out the killing, the complaint stated.

Mallay later told an informant that his cousins killed the victim by poisoning him, the complaint said.

Investigators discovered that Hardeo Sewnanan died in Port Mourant, Guyana in June 1999 from ingestion of alcohol and ammonia. James was the agent and Mallay the beneficiary on at least two policies written on Sewnanan’s life, the complaint said.

It was unclear if the victims knew there lives had been insured, said one law enforcement source.

The complaint stated that about $80,000 was paid out on Somaipersaud’s policies to James and a girl friend and others. About $300,000 was paid out on Sewnanan’s policies, said one investigator.

Staff writer Bryan Virasami contributed to this story.

A Queens man has been charged with conspiring to murder Guyanese immigrants to collect on life insurance policies.

A criminal complaint filed today in federal court in Brooklyn alleges that a scheme hatched by the defendant, Ronald Mallay, and an insurance agent, Richard James, resulted in several deaths by drug overdose and poisoning.

In 1998, Mallay paid $5,000 to have one victim killed, the complaint said. A year later, he allegedly paid $11,000 to have another man killed in Guyana.

James, who was arrested in June, allegedly was the agent on life insurance policies for the dead men naming himself and Mallay as beneficiaries.