Chetanand Sewraz

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Arrest photo of Chetanand Sewraz

Chetanand Kumar Sewraz, who has also gone by the given name of "Ashley", is a Mauritian man currently under investigation by the FBI, ATF, and both Florida and Virginia law enforcement agencies for a wide variety of crimes allegedly committed in the U.S. between March 2005 and January 2006. Sewraz's case has attracted wide interest due to initial (though likely false) suspicions about his possible terrorist links [1]. Sewraz's Ivy League background and deceptive business practices (see "Nanocore Systems and other speculation" below) have also contributed to this interest.

On July 11, 2006, he was convicted of attempting to blow up the cars of both Mariea Gamble (his estranged wife) and her mother using homemade explosives. Police searches of his home have also turned up evidence of the manufacturing of ricin at his home in Midlothian, a suburb of Richmond, VA. While ricin has the potential to be used in bioterrorism, Sewraz is not suspected in any way of terrorist ties. As of March 7, 2006, Chesterfield county charges of domestic assault and felony abduction were dismissed so that the Mauritian native could be deported to Florida, where the alleged carbombing attempts occurred. On March 17, a federal grand jury issued a two-count indictment against Sewraz, charging him with possessing an unregistered destructive device, and with possessing the same device while in the country on a non-immigrant alien visa. On July 11, a jury in Ft. Pierce, FL found Sewraz guilty of the two charges after a 5 day trial.

Though the trial was brief, with jury deliberations only taking an hour, it also resulted in Sewraz's father being charged with obstruction of justice charges. According to a local newspaper, Sewraz's father allegedly attempted to bribe someone for false testimony. [2]

United States District Court Judge Donald L. Graham sentenced Sewraz to 115 months imprisonment on 26th September 2006, to be followed by three years of supervised release. Sewraz was also ordered to pay a $400 special assessment. In addition, it was ordered that Sewraz be turned over to the authority of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation following his term of imprisonment.

According to local news media, Sewraz is also suspected of fraud in connection with an electronic goods scam he ran with his wife. Scams involved ordering electronic goods with online retailers then cancelling the orders as soon as they had been shipped to his home. The timing of the cancellations were such that Sewraz was already receiving the goods and not getting charged for them. He would then return these goods to local shops for a cash refund. He also started a "bogus research business"[3] which he called Nanocore Systems.

Additionally, according to his colleagues at the Yale Electrical Engineering department, during his final year of study there, several dozen technical books and about 15 computers were stolen from the offices around his own. He was one of two suspects with the opportunity to commit these crimes but was so trusted by his colleagues that he was not investigated and the matter was not solved. He also used his office as a contact and shipping point for electronic goods orders.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Biography

Little is known of Sewraz's life apart from the domestic situations surrounding his arrest. He was born in Mauritius and attended the Royal College Curepipe, one of the most prestigious secondary schools on the island. He was generally seen as a quiet character, and excelled in his studies, scoring among the top students of his year during his A-Levels. It is also known that he emigrated to the United States to study electrical engineering at Yale University. He graduated in 2004 with a combined Bachelor's and Master's degree, and later moved to the Richmond, VA area. Sewraz is known to have worked at Capital One, a financial firm which is one of the area's largest employers. Interestingly, graduation bulletins released for Yale's 2004 graduation stated that Sewraz wanted to pursue a Ph.D. program, but had not yet finalized his choice. [4]

Sewraz had a small but fairly revealing Internet presence, most notably with a dating profile he posted on the site VegWeb.com. The now-deleted profile, rambling and philosophical, also contained a spiteful reference to his ex-wife: "Mariea don't try to change my password!"

The Internet played an additional role in his indictment, in which his ex-wife described a comment he made on a chat room asking her “Why are you not sick if you did eat the poisoned chocolate?”. [5]

[edit] Nanocore Systems and other speculation

Sewraz allegedly started a company called Nanocore Systems, and offered salaries of up to $150,000 for "research analysts". Self-descriptions of the company were vague, and hinted at possible government research contracts. However, it is unknown if Sewraz ever even officially registered the endeavor as an organization or LLC, nor if he ever had the funding to make good on his promises. News interviews with his "employees" revealed that he had never paid them. The company was likely an offshoot of Sewraz's intense engineering interest, as classified ads for the company identified Nanocore as a technology startup. Despite the allegations of fraud, it may have been a sincere, albeit horribly mismanaged, attempt at creating a business.