A Guyanese immigrant has been charged with the murders of two men whom New York prosecutors call the victims of a life insurance scam that may have claimed the lives of at least ten other people.
According to news reports out of New York, in an indictment unsealed last Friday, Ronald Mallay was charged in the deaths of Vern 'Dilly' Peter, the husband of an accused co-conspirator, and the fatal shooting in Guyana of Alfred Gobin, the grandfather of another alleged co-conspirator's girlfriend.
The indictment adds the new murder and racketeering charges to the case against Mallay, former insurance agent, Richard James and other suspects, the report said. They are accused of orchestrating the overdose deaths of Guyanese immigrants to collect on life insurance policies that the victims knew nothing about, prosecutors said.
James and Mallay already have been charged in connection with the deaths of two other Guyanese immigrants in the alleged scheme, which prosecutors said mostly victimised people weakened by adversity and alcoholism.
The accusations against James - known for hosting a Sunday afternoon cable show featuring Guyanese music and dance - shocked the Guyanese immigrant community in Queens.
The insurance company, MetLife, discovered the alleged scheme after noticing that 21 death claims had been filed from policies written by James within a few years. The rate "was approximately 318 percent higher than expected [and] ... a large number of deaths were violent or under unusual circumstances," court papers said.
MetLife fired James in July 2000 and notified authorities who put him under surveillance.