Sonny Ramdeo (with microphone) at a news briefing several months ago. Photo:demwaves

Following his arrest in Brooklyn on Wednesday, he made his initial court appearance in a Federal Court in the Eastern Distrtict of New York. The FBI said in a statement that he is expected to be removed to the Southern District of Florida to answer a series of charges.

US authorities announced the unsealing of a December 6, 2012 indictment charging Ramdeo, 35, of Sunrise, with wire fraud in connection with a $20 million federal payroll tax fraud scheme.

His arrest comes at a time when EzJet continues to refund hundreds of passengers monies after the cash-strappped airline was grounded almost two months ago when the charter airline, Swift Air, pulled off its planes from EzJet because of non-payment.

According to the indictment, from as early as 2005, defendant Ramdeo was employed as the payroll supervisor at Promise Healthcare Inc. (Promise Health Care) and Success Healthcare Group (Success Healthcare), both of which owned and operated hospital facilities throughout the United States. As the payroll supervisor for these two companies (the companies), Ramdeo was responsible for overseeing the payment of bi-weekly wages and related payroll taxes for more than 3,500 employees.

To execute his scheme, Ramdeo allegedly incorporated PayServ Tax Inc. and thereafter represented to officers and employees of Promise Healthcare that PayServ Tax would handle the transfer of local, state, and federal payroll taxes to the proper agencies on behalf of Promise Healthcare and Success Healthcare.

In fact, however, Ramdeo kept the money paid by Promise and Success Healthcare to PayServ for his personal use.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ellen L. Cohen.