Placed on $2M bail

Less than 24 hours after he publicly accused the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) of victimizing him because he exposed corruption within it, Joshua Safeek of Fidelity Investment appeared in court to answer a charge of allegedly producing falsified documents to the customs.

Safeek, who was jointly charged along with the company which has been embroiled in a polar beer tax evasion scam, pleaded not guilty to the charge yesterday and was granted pre-trial liberty in the sum of $2M by Acting Chief Magistrate, Melissa Robertson-Ogle.

GRA prosecutor Gino Persaud did not object to bail and also indicated to the court that he had no issue with Safeek being released on his own recognizance. The magistrate went ahead and set substantial bail.

The charges were filed under the Customs Act, Article 217 and according to the particulars Safeek wilfully presented falsified documents to customs on or around June 25.

At the time the documents were issued Safeek was acting as an officer of Fidelity.

No one appeared on behalf of the company but attorney-at-law Winston Murray entered an appearance for Fidelity. Company Secretary Mata Persaud is expected to appear when the case is called again on September 12.

According to reports, GRA recently barred Fidelity from clearing a shipment of polar beer after it detected that the company received a low valuation on the shipment from custom officials. It is alleged that Fidelity had false documents drawn up in its declarations to the revenue body for the shipment which came in about two weeks ago declaring the rate of the shipment below the real rate.

Hukumchand argued strongly in court yesterday that Fidelity paid duties in excess of $8M on the shipment of beer in contention yet GRA went ahead to file charges against the company. The attorney reiterated some of the arguments made by Fidelity at a press briefing on Thursday.

Persaud responded by saying that he was not going to argue anything substantively at that stage of the case noting that the focus at the time was on the bail application that was made.

Safeek who spoke at length on Thursday about what he described as widespread corruption at customs was previously slapped with charges by the GRA for importing beer into the country without paying the necessary duties.

Those matters have also been deferred to September.

Fidelity has been entangled with customs since April when an independent probe was initiated by President Bharrat Jagdeo to investigate alleged underhand activities at customs.

Fidelity is alleged to have bribed customs officials to clear a shipment that came into the country earlier this year subsequently triggering the probe which is still continuing. Fidelity has denied the allegation.