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TRENTON
– Attorney General Paula T. Dow and
Criminal Justice Director Stephen J. Taylor
announced that an alleged con artist from
Burlington County and his Canadian partner
have been indicted on charges they posed
as investment bankers and financial advisors
to steal more than $500,000 from clients
who were promised millions of dollars in
venture capital.
According
to Director Taylor, the Division of Criminal
Justice Financial and Computer Crimes Bureau
obtained a state grand jury indictment on
Sept. 16 charging Albert A. Paramito Jr.,
39, of Marlton, N.J., his company Paramito
Global Holding Inc., a Nevada corporation
with an address in Voorhees, and Priti Ramjee,
a Toronto woman who is Paramito’s
partner, with conspiracy, theft by deception
and money laundering, all in the second
degree. Paramito and Ramjee were also charged
with second-degree misconduct by a corporate
official.
It
is alleged that between October 2006 and
September 2008, Paramito and Ramjee demanded
advance fees from six clients, ranging from
$40,000 to $284,000, fraudulently claiming
that they would arrange for millions of
dollars in financing for the clients’
projects. The defendants allegedly stole
approximately $534,000 in fees, while never
arranging any financing.
“Paramito
and Ramjee portrayed themselves as high-powered
financiers who could raise millions of dollars
in venture capital, but we allege that,
in reality, they are nothing but slick con
artists,” said Attorney General Dow.
“If convicted, they could face up
to 10 years in prison.”
“Beginning
with a complaint from a businessman who
had been defrauded, our detective and prosecutor
diligently pursued the trail of stolen money
and broken promises that these defendants
are charged with leaving in their wake,”
said Director Taylor. “We are aggressively
targeting financial fraud.”
The
case was presented to the state grand jury
by Deputy Attorney General Betty Rodriguez.
The lead investigator is Sgt. Robert Walker.
They were supervised by Deputy Attorney
General Terrence Hull, Chief of the Division
of Criminal Justice Financial and Computer
Crimes Bureau.
The
clients and their projects were spread across
the U.S. and included one Canadian venture.
A man who ran a broadband communications
company paid the defendants $284,000 in
advance fees after Paramito and Ramjee promised
to secure $27.8 million in funding for his
company. Two of the other clients ran film
production companies in Los Angeles. They
each paid $50,000 in advance fees in the
expectation that Paramito and Ramjee would
raise millions of dollars for each company
to produce a film. Ramjee told one of the
film clients she could raise $30 million.
In
similar fashion, the defendants allegedly
obtained $50,000 from a man who wanted to
raise $20 million for a wind energy project
in Canada, $60,000 from a man who wanted
to raise millions of dollars to build a
causeway across a lake in Utah for a toll
road, and $40,000 from a man who wanted
to buy a defunct hospital in Kansas to develop
as an assisted living facility.
In
some instances, Paramito and Ramjee represented
that they would become partners in the ventures
and executed agreements with the clients
regarding profit sharing and other terms.
None of the victims received any financing.
Several demanded reimbursement of their
fees, but Paramito and Ramjee allegedly
refused to return the money. The defendants
allegedly laundered the stolen funds through
personal and corporate bank accounts in
New Jersey and Canada.
Paramito
also operates several other companies, including
Affinity Financial Service LLC of Voorhees,
N.J., Paramito Asset Management LLC of Pennsylvania,
Paramito Pictures LLC of Delaware, and PGH-Canada
Ltd. of Ontario, Canada. Ramjee allegedly
represented herself as senior vice president
of PGH-Canada and head of Paramito Productions.
Victims indicated that she appeared knowledgeable
with respect to both financial matters and
film production.
Second-degree
crimes carry a maximum sentence of 10 years
in state prison and a criminal fine of $150,000.
The second-degree money laundering charge
carries a maximum fine of $500,000, and
an anti-money laundering profiteering penalty
of up to $250,000.
The
indictment is merely an accusation and the
defendants are presumed innocent until proven
guilty. The indictment was handed up to
Superior Court Judge Pedro J. Jimenez Jr.
in Mercer County, who assigned the case
to Burlington County, where the defendants
will be ordered to appear in court at a
later date to answer the charges.
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