Charges: Lakeville nanny a patsy in crimes

Immigrant Basantee Ramoatar had worked for years as a nanny and housekeeper for a south metro woman, never suspecting her boss was fabricating federal tax documents and stealing her identity.

But charges filed in Dakota County District Court allege that's what the former employer did, illegally getting loans and buying an expensive house, running up more than $800,000 in debt in the 65-year-old woman's name.

Amy Janette Johnson, 42, of Lakeville, was charged with identity theft and theft by swindle, both felonies. She could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Ramoatar said that when she thinks about what happened, she trembles and shakes. She tries to avoid the bill collectors, and her credit is in shambles.

"I just want nobody to call me, just leave me in peace," she said. "I'm old. This all put me in depression. I just want everything to go away."

Ramoatar said she had given all of her personal information, from her bank security code to her Social Security number, to Johnson. Ramoatar said she also once signed papers after being told to do so because she trusted her employer.

Only when bill collectors began calling, and one of them told her she was late on mortgage payments, did the nanny realize something was terribly wrong. Ramoatar has never owned a house.

The house is at 15490 Lucerne Circle in Burnsville, a model built in 2004 where Johnson lived with her six children, and where Ramoatar would come and go as nanny and cleaner.

According to search warrant papers, Pritzlaff also found a car loan that was in collections for more than $2,000, also in Ramoatar's name.

But she has never owned a car and doesn't have a driver's license, she said.

The charges say Johnson also bought furniture, racking up an $11,000 loan with late fees, using Ramoatar's name.

"She really has no idea what has happened here," Pritzlaff said.

"She know that I don't speak too much like English, and she know that I don't read or write, just a little bit," Ramoatar said.

Because Ramoatar had shown her identification and signed documents during loan processes at Johnson's behest, Pritzlaff said at first he wondered if it was a civil matter, rather than criminal.

But then he found bogus W-2 forms that Johnson had created in Ramoatar's name to get the initial home loan from Countryside, he said.

The phony W-2s purported that Ramoatar earned more than $100,000 a year in 2004 and 2005 by selling swimming pools from Performance Pool and Spa in Woodbury.

Pritzlaff interviewed one of the owners and confirmed that Ramoatar never worked there and that the W-2s were phony. But Johnson had been a successful saleswoman there, Pritzlaff learned.

Johnson, also known by the last names Durham and Finholt, was charged by summons on Dec. 23.

Ramoatar has had surgery on both hands for carpal tunnel syndrome and now lives in a one-bedroom apartment in Rosemount on $430 a month in Social Security, her hands too worn out to work.

Ramoatar said she wants justice but worries about the divorced woman's six children.

"I want her to go to prison for how she hurt me and made me go through all this stuff," she said, "but then I think about the kids."