French Guiana man accused of threatening southern Utah employees through phone calls

ST. GEORGE — A man from French Guiana is in federal custody after allegedly threatening and harassing store employees in southern Utah.

Ramchand Rattan, 44, was living illegally in Las Vegas when he was indicted in August by a federal grand jury.

In May 2025, Rattan made threatening phone calls to a Ford dealership employee in St. George, charges said. The alleged victim had assisted Rattan and a woman and had taken them on a few test drives.

Rattan noticed the victim spoke with an accent and asked where he was from, and the employee said he was originally from Britain. A few days later, Rattan called the dealership and asked for the victim, but because he was not on the lot at the time, the employee gave Rattan the victim's personal phone number, according to the charges.

The victim said he started receiving multiple threatening phone calls and voicemails from Rattan.

"If the victim answered, Rattan accused him of being a British homosexual and that he was going to kill him. If the victim did not answer, Rattan would sometimes leave voicemails that made similar accusations and threats," the charges said.

The victim showed police two of the voicemails from Rattan, where he said he wanted to "bust" his head, shoot him and return to the dealership that afternoon to allegedly murder him, the charges state.

In one message, Rattan is accused of saying he would "follow you all over the United States and murder you," the charges allege.

Police contacted the woman who was with Rattan at the dealership, who told investigators he had made threatening phone calls in the past.

Rattan is also accused of making threatening phone calls to a Costco employee in St. George in January. Employees reported that a man with an accent had demanded the firing of an employee with whom he recently interacted, the charges said.

Rattan is accused of using derogatory names for protected classes of people, even saying that if they were not fired, he would "turn your place into a BBQ joint. I'm going to light it up like a BBQ joint," the charges state.

Rattan told the Costco employees he was not afraid of the Secret Service or FBI and that he could "disable" the police, the charges said. Investigators determined it was the same phone number that threatened Costco as the one that threatened the car dealership employee.

Investigators also learned Rattan was a suspect in a similar threats investigation in Arizona.

Rattan was initially charged in 5th District Court with terrorism, a second-degree felony, and electronic communication harassment, a class B misdemeanor. Those charges were dismissed after he was indicted on Aug. 11 and charged in federal court with two counts of interstate communications with a threat to injure.

He made his initial court appearance a week later, and a five-day jury trial is scheduled for the end of next month. According to court documents, Rattan is in the United States illegally with a pending asylum claim.

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