A US federal probe of a suspected murder-for-insurance ring in the Guyanese immigrant community netted a mother and her adult son on charges they tried to threaten witnesses and obstruct the investigation.
According to a New York Newsday report, Betty Mallay, whose brother Ronald is awaiting trial on murder charges in connection with the alleged ring, was arrested on Tuesday along with her son Baskanand Motilall.
The arrests are the latest development in a case that emerged in September 2002 with the arrest of Ronald Mallay and Richard James, an insurance broker well-known in Richmond Hill and the producer of a cultural programme featured on cable television. Federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against both men.
The latest charges also disclosed two additional homicides that are now included in the widening investigation into possible killings for insurance proceeds.
Mallay, also known as Betty Peters, and her son were ordered held without bail late Tuesday. Their ages were not given. Property records show both own homes in Woodside.
Investigators said James and Ronald Mallay conspired to kill two victims and collect hundreds of thousands of dollars in insurance proceeds. While only two homicides were linked to their cases, investigators were looking into other deaths.
In criminal complaints unsealed on Tuesday in a Brooklyn federal court, a federal agent said that two more killings under investigation involved people linked to the Mallay family.
The newly revealed homicide victims were identified as Alfred Gobin, the grandfather of Ronald Mallay's ex-girlfriend, and Vernon Peters, Betty Mallay's late husband, according to the complaints.
Gobin died in Guyana around 1997, said a law enforcement source, while Peters was gunned down on July 28, 1993, as he walked through the Woodside Houses on his way to work. Peters, 43, was accosted by a group of men who demanded his wallet and jewellery when one robber shot him in the head, said police.
Federal prosecutors said that soon after Ronald Mallay and James were arrested, Betty Mallay and her son began to make threats against witnesses. In one instance, Betty Mallay allegedly told relatives of Gobin that "whomever had caused problems for her family would soon be 'crying blood,'" the complaint stated.
The complaint against Motilall alleged that he threatened one of the same Gobin relatives he believed was an informant. Motilall also said "Alfred Gobin got what he deserved and is rotting in hell," according to the complaint.
Newsday reports that investigators charged that Betty Mallay got cash from the life insurance policy on Peters while Motilall reaped proceeds from the insurance on Gobin.
"There is no merit to the charges," Motilall's attorney Robert Gottlieb said yesterday.
James' attorney Steven Zissou said his client did not sell any insurance to Gobin or Peters.