New York-based Guyanese woman pleads guilty to US$1.7 million bank fraud

Last Updated on Wednesday, 30 June 2021, 23:33 by Denis Chabrol

A Guyanese woman has pleaded guilty to a more than decade-long conspiracy to commit bank fraud, defrauding her employer, a Manhattan-based bank, by misappropriating approximately $1.7 million.

Audrey Strauss, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that Gangadai Rampersaud Azim, also known as Julie Azim, pled guilty before U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla.

“As she admitted today, Gangadai Azim betrayed her position as a trusted bank employee to defraud the bank and misappropriate nearly $1.7 million in client funds over the course of more than a dozen years.  Now Azim awaits sentencing for her crime,” the US Department of Justice quoted Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss as saying.

According to the allegations in the Complaint, court filings, and statements made during plea proceedings:

Between August 2008 and January 2021, Azim, a long-time employee of a New York, New York-based bank (“Bank-1”), stole approximately $1.7 million from her employer.  Over the course of approximately 12 years, Azim executed hundreds of wire transfers of Bank-1 funds to co-conspirators and related companies, who then sent portions of the ill-gotten funds to AZIM’s personal bank account.

In furtherance of her scheme to defraud Bank-1, Azim repeatedly made false entries in Bank-1’s systems, misappropriating funds paid to Bank-1 by its clients to satisfy outstanding loan obligations and then extending the maturity dates of those loan obligations, making it appear as though the loan obligations had not yet been paid.  When even the fraudulently extended maturity dates came due, Azim originated new, fraudulent loans to help conceal the scheme.  AZIM utilized the proceeds of those fraudulent loans to satisfy the loans for which she had previously stolen the client payments.  Over the course of the approximately 12 years, Azim caused approximately 200 improper wire transfers of Bank-1’s funds, each for an amount under $10,000,  to be sent to third party accounts, including those of co-conspirators and related companies, which then returned portions of those funds to AZIM.  In doing so, AZIM abused her position at Bank-1 and enriched herself at the expense of her employer.

Azim, 58, of Richmond Hill, New York, pled guilty to one count of conspiring to commit bank fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §1349, which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.  The maximum potential sentence in this case is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the judge.

AZIM is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Failla on October 19, 2021, at 3:30 p.m.

Ms. Strauss praised the outstanding investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in this case.

The case is being prosecuted by the Office’s Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine Reilly is in charge of the prosecution.