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The people who were supposedly raising money to finance the construction of a proposed private toll bridge across Utah Lake have been indicted for falsely posing as venture bankers to steal up-front fundraising fees that they collected from the project's would-be developers.

Charges in New Jersey allege that the pair — Albert A. Paramito Jr. and Priti Ramjee — scammed five other projects nationally and stole more than $500,000 combined from them. Prosecutors say they stole $80,000 from the Utah Lake project.

Leon Harward, president of Utah Crossing, the company seeking to build the Utah Lake bridge, declined comment about what the alleged theft has done to the finances and plans of his project, and whether he has other financial sources for it. However, he said he still intends to seek state approval for the proposed bridge between Saratoga Springs and Orem.

"I don't want to say anything because I don't want to jeopardize the criminal case against them," Harward told TheTribune. "We still intend to move the project forward. This hasn't changed anything as far as that goes."

But proving financial feasibility is among the key criteria that the Utah Transportation Commission will use to judge whether the state should grant a lease for the bridge, according to a policy it adopted earlier this month.

Tim Wagner with the Sierra Club and a critic of the bridge, said the criminal charges increase his group's concerns about whether the project can survive financially over the long term, or eventually would be abandoned.

"This just corroborates what we have been saying, that this project is on shaky ground and state agencies should exercise extreme caution in examining the finances of this project," he said. "Consider the investment to build something like this, and how long it would take to see a payback."

Utah Crossing has estimated that the bridge would cost $600 million.

New Jersey Attorney General Paula T. Dow obtained an indictment last Friday against Paramito, who lives in New Jersey, and Ramjee, who lives in Canada, and their company, Paramito Global Holding, Inc. It charges them with theft by deception, money laundering and misconduct by a corporate official.

The indictment alleges that between October 2006 and September 2008, they obtained advance fees from six clients, ranging from $40,000 to $284,000 each, claiming they would arrange for millions of dollars in financing for their projects.

The indictments allege that the pair stole $534,000 in fees while never arranging any financing.

"Paramito and Ramjee portrayed themselves as high-powered financiers who could raise millions of dollars in venture capital, but we allege that, in reality, they are nothing but slick con artists," Dow said in a news release. "If convicted, they could face up to 10 years in prison."

Prosecutors allege that the pair collected $284,000 in advance fees from a broadband communications company after the pair promised to secure $27.8 million in funding for it.

Two other clients ran film production companies in Los Angeles. They each paid $50,000 in advance fees and were told the pair could raise $30 million for them.

Similarly, prosecutors say the pair obtained $50,000 from a man who wanted to raise $20 million for a wind-energy project in Canada, and $40,000 from a man who wanted to buy a defunct hospital in Kansas to develop an assisted-living facility.

Prosecutors said that in some instances, Paramito and Ramjee represented that they would become partners in ventures and executed agreements with the clients regarding profit sharing and other items. Some of the clients eventually demanded reimbursement of their fees, but Paramito and Ramjee allegedly refused to return the money. —

Utah Lake bridge proposal

The Utah Lake crossing is a proposed bridge over Utah Lake connecting Orem and Saratoga Springs. Under the plan, the span would be 7.6 miles long, 5.8 miles of that over the lake, constructed on piles driven into the lakebed. Traffic speeding at 70 mph across the bridge would be charged a toll by way of an electronic tolling system.