Trini faces 30 years in jail for fraud

NEW YORK: A Trinidadian, who faces 30 years in jail for fraud in Long Island, New York, is giving evidence against a business executive in his attempt to get a reduced sentence. According to the evidence, the former head of American Tissue Inc, Mehdi Gabayzadeh, ordered a subordinate, Amzad Ali,  in 2002 to remove serial numbers on machinery valued at nearly US $1 million, making it difficult for creditors to locate them. Speaking in Federal Court in Central Islip, Long Island, Amzad Ali said he received a voicemail message from Gabayzadeh requesting that the machines, which produced toilet paper rolls, be moved from Mexico City to Vernon, California, where his sister owned a paper company.

The unusual request occurred six months after Hauppauge-based American Tissue collapsed into bankruptcy and creditors were seeking to find equipment and other assets, which they claimed had been hidden. The three machines were moved four times between several  states and Mexico in less than a year. In a dramatic moment, prosecutors played a recording of Gabayzadeh’s  message to Ali on March 27, 2002. “I’m asking Moussa (an assistant to Ali), please, uh, send this machine from Mexico City to, uh, Paper Source in California and before you ship take the plaque out of the, out of the machine,” Gabayzadeh is heard to be saying. Gabayzadeh, 60, of Great Neck, is on trial for eight counts of fraud, conspiracy to commit perjury and obstruction of justice. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Ali, who is believed to be 48 and living in Medford, pleaded guilty to bank fraud and faces up to 30 years in jail. His testimony could affect his sentence.

Like other former American Tissue employees, Ali told the jury he felt great “loyalty” to Gabayzadeh, in part because his standard of living greatly improved over a nine-year period. Prior to joining American Tissue in 1995, Ali, an immigrant from Trinidad, had earned between $425 and $450 a week at a deli in the Bronx. By 2000-2001, he was earning between $70,000 and $80,000 a year  as American Tissue’s purchasing manager. Under questioning from assistant US attorney John G Martin, Ali said he was directed by Gabayzadeh to create fraudulent documents in an attempt to interfere with the liquidation of American Tissue. The bills of sale, which were produced in May-June 2002 but dated a year earlier, were supposed to prove that a papermaking machine in Oregon wasn’t part of the bankruptcy.

Ali also testified that Gabayzadeh ordered him to lie to a Delaware bankruptcy court about the documents’ authenticity. Ali balked after speaking with his lawyer. Speaking at times in halting English, Ali contradicted earlier descriptions of Gabayzadeh as unfamiliar with accounting and finance, and thus intimidated by the company’s chief financial officer, Edward I Stein. Gabayzadeh’s lawyer has argued that Stein was the architect of a $300 million swindle that doomed American Tissue. “He was like a little puppy dog,” Ali said, referring to Stein. “So were most of us in front of Mehdi ... He had 100 percent knowledge of day-to-day activities from the shipping department right up to the corporate office.” Ali is expected to resume testifying today as the trial enters its ninth week.