Federal Prosecutors and lawyers for Guyanese businessman Edul Ahmad (photo, right), who has been indicted in a $50 million dollar mortgage fraud scheme, have apparently reached a plea arrangement that will be made public next month.
Ahmad made a $40,000 payment to Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) in 2007 that the Congressman failed to disclose on his Financial Disclosure Reports for 2007, 2008, and 2009. Meeks subsequently claimed the $40,000 payment was a loan, but there were no note or payments until several years after the payment was made. Last year the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) asked the House Ethics Committee to investigate the matter. The OCE reported that Rep. Meeks “refused to cooperate with the OCE’s investigation.”
In 2011, Ahmad was reportedly removed from a Guyanese-bound airplane on the tarmac at JFK airport by the FBI and was indicted in connection with a massive $50 million mortgage fraud scheme.
The National Legal and Policy Center first exposed Rep. Meeks’ involvement with a questionable charity in January 2010. In March 2010, NLPC filed a lengthy complaint with the House Ethics Committee asking it to investigate the Congressman’s financial dealings with Ponzi schemer R. Allen Stanford (who was subsequently convicted) and numerous questionable circumstances surrounding the construction of a new home for Meeks. The Ahmad loan was disclosed by Meeks only after media scrutiny of his finances, and reportedly, inquiries from the FBI.
A letter filed yesterday by Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander A. Solomon, of the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York, states “the parties have reached tentative agreement to a proposed pretrial resolution” and requests a plea date for sometime during the week of October 8, 2012.
Related:
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