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Khamraj Lall, 52, of Ringwood was convicted by a federal jury in Trenton last October of using the proceeds of a "cocaine empire” to buy jets, homes and cars, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said.
“He also paid more than $2 million in cash stuffed in suitcases to a Florida contractor to build an airplane hangar in Guyana,” Carpenito said.
The Guyanese-born Lall -- who owned a private jet charter business called Exec Jet Club in Gainesville, FL -- already was facing charges in Puerto Rico of carrying $600,000 in drug money during a refueling stop when authorities arrested him in July 2015 with what they said was a five-kilo load.
Over a 3-½ year period, Lall also made (or had others make) 1,287 cash deposits totaling approximately $7.5 million into more than 20 different bank accounts in New Jersey and New York, much of it in $20 bills, Carpenito said.
All of the deposits were under $10,000 to circumvent federal banking reporting laws, he said.
Lall chose not to negotiate a plea deal with the government and instead went to trial. Jurors convicted him of eight counts, including conspiracy, drug smuggling and money laundering following an eight-day trial.
Because there is no parole in the federal prison system, Lall must serve all of the sentence handed down Friday by U.S. District Judge Anne E. Thompson, which includes five years of supervised release.
He previously was ordered to pay $9.3 million and forfeit his interest to the government in two jet airplanes, two airplane hangars, multiple properties and a Lexus SUV, among other items directly traced to his crimes.
Carpenito credited special agents and task force officers of IRS-Criminal Investigation, Morristown police, special agents and staff of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Rochester office of the DEA, the FAA and U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations Center.
Handling the case are Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jonathan M. Peck and Thomas S. Kearney of Carpenito’s Criminal Division in Newark.
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