A New York bank manager who was sentenced last week to nine years and six months in prison for thwarting a plot to hire the murder of his brother-in-law is said to have told the would-be hitman that “rat poison works great.”
According to court documents, Reshma Masarone, 40, a branch manager at Mid-Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union, was captured on security camera planning to kill her sister's husband over Facebook Messenger between July 2023 and August 2023 and sending a $2,500 down payment to a would-be hit man at a Western Union kiosk inside a Walgreens.
According to court documents, Massarone asked a longtime friend to kill a man while she was on a trip with her family in Guyana. But the friend, a Guyanese police officer, went undercover to set up a case against her, and Massarone pleaded guilty to soliciting murder. She was sentenced on August 27.
'There's no turning back' after bank employee allegedly plotted murder of brother-in-law on Facebook
Between July 20 and Aug. 16, 2023, Reshma Macerone, a branch manager at a New York credit union, allegedly used Facebook Messenger to ask an old friend, who is not named in the federal complaint against Macerone, to help her carry out criminal activity. (United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York)
“You do your job well and get rich,” Massarone wrote to the aspiring hitman. “If I give the job to someone else you're going to get the blame anyway so cut the bullshit out and get it done.”
The plan was uncovered when the aspiring hitman contacted the victim and his wife, who “traveled to the U.S. Embassy in Guyana to report that Massarone planned to kill the victim.” The killing was scheduled to take place as early as July 25, 2023.
A friend of Massarone's had recorded a phone call in which Massarone stated he wanted to kill his brother-in-law and that the commissioned murder should look like a robbery; the call was later translated by a DEA special agent and a native Guyanese speaker and used as evidence in court.
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Security camera footage from the Walgreens shows Macerone completing a wire transfer at a Western Union kiosk. According to the complaint, the footage shows Macerone handing the cashier 25 $100 bills totaling $2,500. (United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York)
Massarone's lawyers said his client had acted “totally out of character” and was in a “rage”, arguing that he had been fuelled by “25 years of systematic harassment” by his brother-in-law.
The would-be victim was “clearly despised” because he was “not given the opportunity to marry.” [Massarone] At age 15.” Instead, the defense argued, he married Massarone's sister, who was 16 at the time.
Massarone attempted to advance her career in banking, but the victim “continued to ruin her professional life with systematic phone calls,” the lawyers wrote. [place of] They interfered with her employment to get her fired.”
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Surveillance footage obtained by investigators on July 21 shows Macerone withdrawing $2,500 from a bank in Orange County, New York. (United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York)
“For the past 25 years, this man has done everything he can to try to destroy Ms. Massarone, including but not limited to harassing her beautiful and incredibly intelligent eldest daughter, who he tried to disqualify from a beauty contest and was an honors recipient in college,” the defense memo read. “What would stop this man from calling law schools to which Ms. Massarone is applying? What would stop this so-called victim from continuing to make disparaging comments on social media about Ms. Massarone's youngest daughter and husband?”
“The answer is nothing,” the memo adds.
“She lost her job, paid lawyers, called the police, filed protection orders, relocated her family, installed a security system in her home and nothing has stopped it. [the victim] “From his continued attacks on her,” her lawyers wrote.
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At least one protective order was filed against the victim on Massarone's behalf, according to Queens Criminal Court documents.
This is not Massarone's first time in court: In the past two years he has sued two banks, alleging that he was subjected to racial discrimination while employed there. Both lawsuits were dismissed.
The prosecution was unsympathetic, with U.S. Attorney Damien Williams saying after the verdict that the woman's “horrific plot to murder a member of her own family for the paltry sum of $10,000” was “unthinkably callous.”
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“The victim’s actions are certainly not to be commended,” prosecutors wrote in their ruling, “but she should not be viewed as having been subjected to such harassment and abuse. [justify Massarone’s behavior]”
“The defendant's victim blaming should not be allowed to stand, and her request for a reduced sentence should be denied,” prosecutors wrote ahead of the Aug. 27 sentencing.
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Previously, Ms Massarone's family had accused her of exploiting them by taking out insurance on dying relatives, exposing tensions within the family.
“This heartless animal tried to exploit my dying sister and this is what she got,” one relative wrote on Facebook.
“That woman is evil,” posted another. The New York Post reported.“She's been torturing and tormenting people for a long time.”
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“She wasn't happy and she wasn't getting her way so she wanted to kill her husband,” a family member told the outlet. “I think her next move would have been to assassinate or murder her husband because she was saddled with legal fees and so on. I think in her mind it was more about settling the issue rather than litigating.”
Massarone's lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment.
