Loan shark sentenced to life in prison for Queens businessman’s murder over son’s unpaid debt

A violent Staten Island loan shark was sentenced to life in prison for his role in a debt collection that ended in murder.

Ppassim Elder was charged with the October 2017 death of Queens business owner Hani Kasem, 64.

Elder sent three men to Kasem’s Ozone Park business Garden Valley Distributors to collect a $50,000 balance from the owner’s 32-year-old son, prosecutors said.

When Kasem’s son told the men he couldn’t pay it, he ended up pistol-whipped and his father was shot in the face.

Judge William F. Kuntz II called the life sentence “justice.”

“This is life imprisonment richly deserved,” Kuntz said.

At the federal judge’s decision, scattered clapping erupted and some of Kasem’s family members, including his wife, broke down in tears.

“Life!” exclaimed one of Kasem’s sons.

Elder apologized to Kasem’s children and said he felt “heartfelt sorrow” for the family, but denied responsibility.

“The event that took place that fateful morning was not by my hand,” said Elder. “I have nothing to do with this. I have no knowledge of this.”

Elder’s attorney, Thomas Wooter, claimed “no killing was intended.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kara Migios called Elder’s actions “callous,” noting that the two families knew each other and had socialized many times over the years.

Elder was “driven by pure greed, driven by money that he had obtained by fraud, to send people to hold up the Kasem family at gunpoint,” said Migios.

In a victim impact statement, Kasem’s son looked Elder in the eye as he told him, “This pain will never go away.”

“All your life is about scamming, killing, hurting,” said Mahmoud Kasem. “Thank God the truth came out.

“I lost my husband,” Fozyeh Kasem told the Daily News. “Eight girls all lost their father. My grandchildren always talk about him whenever they come over, they never forget.”