Ppassim Elder, Wilbert Bryant sentenced To 202 & 40 Years in Hani Kasem Murder’ Two extortionists convicted of murdering a 64-year-old family man shot to death at his Queens, N.Y., business was sentenced Wednesday to a combined 242 years for the “ruthless and vicious” slaying, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York announced.
Ppassim Elder, Hani Kasem, Wilbert Bryant
Ppassim Elder, Wilbert Bryant sentenced To 202 & 40 Years in Hani Kasem Murder
Prosecutors said Ppassim Elder, a 43-year-old Staten Island man, and Wilbert Bryant, a 58-year-old Brooklyn man, were “[m]otivated by greed” the day Hani Kasem was shot in the face, his spinal cord severed. The gruesome Oct. 23, 2017 homicide took place in Ozone Park after Elder sent Bryant and others to collect a debt, which Elder said was incurred by the victim’s son, Mahmoud.
According to the government, Mahmoud wanted to expand the family’s Garden Valley Distributors business, described as a supplier of “local delis and bodegas.” When Mahmoud was “unable to secure funding from his bank and began asking others in the Palestinian community for assistance,” court documents said, Elder “approached Mahmoud outside of a wedding and offered to meet at Garden Valley.”
“To facilitate the investment, Elder requested that Mahmoud take checks from Elder, deposit them, and give certain amounts of cash back to Elder,” court documents said, describing the origins of Elder’s extortion scheme. “Two of the checks were issued by a company called Sajahtera Inc. and, unbeknownst to Mahmoud, represented proceeds of fraud […] Mahmoud complied, and then used the remaining money, which he believed was Elder’s investment in Garden Valley, to buy merchandise for the store.”
Once roped into the Elder’s extortionate scheme, prosecutors said, the family became the target of threats and intimidation.
