Pathao co-founder Fahim Saleh’s killer sentenced to 40 years in jail

A personal assistant convicted of killing and dismembering his former tech entrepreneur boss Fahim Saleh was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison on Tuesday, Associated Press reports quoting Manhattan’s district attorney.

The Manhattan Supreme Court handed down the sentence on Tuesday for Haspil, 25, after a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder, grand larceny, concealment of a human corpse and related counts in June, reports the New York Daily News.

The trial exposed his calculated efforts to steal more than $400,000 from his former employer, Fahim Saleh, and dismember his body in a failed attempt to cover up the crime.

The court, packed with onlookers, heard Haspil’s unexpected statement during the sentencing hearing – he rejected his attorney’s plea for leniency and instead agreed with the prosecution’s request for consecutive 25-year sentences. “Unlike my counsel, I don’t think anything less than life without parole would be appropriate.”

Before imposing the sentence, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice April Newbauer said Haspil appeared to be driven primarily by greed.

Fahim Saleh, 33, the victim of the crime, was the co-founder of two companies, including Gokada, a motorcycle ride-sharing service in Nigeria.

Born to Bangladeshi parents and raised in Rochester, New York, Fahim had employed Haspil as an assistant in 2018.

Despite catching him embezzling money, Fahim chose not to report the crime to authorities, instead offering Haspil a repayment plan – a gesture of compassion that jurors later heard during the trial.

Haspil resigned from his position in 2019, fearing Fahim would discover the extent of his thefts.

Jurors learned that Haspil had meticulously planned the murder over several months, driven by anxiety that Fahim would uncover his fraudulent schemes, which had netted him at least $400,000.