A lacking Deutsche Financial institution exec was buried in a pauper’s grave for 20 years as a result of town didn’t correctly examine when his physique washed up close to his FiDi residence, based on court docket papers.
Rand Kandoria, an operations officer for worldwide settlements on the prestigious financial institution, was lacking for practically per week when a pal referred to as the NYPD on Dec. 27, 2004 to report the British native’s disappearance.
Kandoria, 43, lived at 99 John St., the place one-bedroom flats now go for roughly $1 million.
His panicked household again residence within the UK filed a lacking individual’s report and stayed in contact with investigators.
“For months . . . the household repeatedly contacted the NYPD and had been repeatedly informed that there have been no updates,” they mentioned in a Manhattan Supreme Courtroom submitting.
Two months after the banker went lacking, a physique surfaced close to Pier 11 within the East River, a couple of half a mile from his residence.
Like Kandoria, the physique within the water was male, in his early 40s, and of north Indian descent.
However investigators allegedly didn’t make the connection and even test if the lacking man’s fingerprints matched the John Doe fished out of the river, the Kandorias claimed in court docket papers.
As a substitute, town despatched the nameless corpse to its longtime land of misplaced souls: Hart Island.
Greater than 1 million folks have been buried within the 45-acre spit of land off the Bronx, town’s Potter’s Area for these too poor to afford a correct grave, or with no family members to offer them a closing goodbye.
The John Doe was buried in Grave No. 313.
“For 20 years, the Kandoria household was unaware of what had occurred to Rand. They had been unable to mourn or course of their loss,” based on court docket papers searching for permission to file a lawsuit after authorized deadlines had expired.
Rand’s father, Rai, died on March 11, 2015.
Decided to get to the reality, the lacking man’s brother, Sham Kandoria, employed non-public investigator Rosanna Licitra in 2024. In January 2025 he once more reached out to the NYPD together with town Medical Examiner.
Two months later, an NYPD detective delivered the stunning information: Rand had truly been discovered a long time in the past.
A staffer within the Medical Examiner’s workplace informed Sham she’d matched the fingerprints of the person in Grave 313 to what town had on file for Rand. Final 12 months Rand Kandoria’s stays had been exhumed, and Sham Kandoria organized for cremation.
“In August of 2025, Sham traveled to New York to gather his brother’s ashes and [brought] them again to the UK for a correct burial,” based on court docket papers.
“After 20 years, the household was lastly capable of [bury] . . . Rand Kandoria in February of 2026 and obtain the closure they so desperately wanted.”
It’s not the primary time town failed to understand it had wrongly buried somebody on Hart Island.
Queens School pupil LaMont Dottin was 21 when he left his grandmother’s Hollis residence on Oct. 17, 1995 to mail a bundle — and was by no means seen once more.
Although his physique was discovered six days later washed up alongside the East River, and had been recognized by the FBI through his fingerprints, nobody informed the NYPD and Dottin’s physique was buried on Hart Island for 3 years earlier than authorities lastly exchanged data and discovered the reality, based on experiences.
