A man who allegedly converted monies to his own use after receiving it for the purchase and export of seafood was granted $600,000 bail by Acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson yesterday at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.

Lukenauth Chan of Montrose, 28, East Coast Demerara pleaded not guilty to the charge of fraudulent conversion.

He denied that between April 1 and May 19 he was solely entrusted with $3.3M from Lennox Narine in order to purchase and export seafood to him in Barbados but he fraudulently converted it to his own use and benefit. Prosecutor Kevin London stated that Chan had promised Narine the seafood within two weeks and when he noticed that the time had passed he made several attempts to contact Chan but to no avail.

However, Chan’s lawyer Vic Puran stated that “it was a pure contract that my client is involved in.” He noted that it was not a criminal matter and his client had no intention of using the money for his own benefit.
He said the incident resulted when his client was unable to purchase a large quantity of seafood that Narine had requested.

He said that Narine had given his client $12M to purchase and export the seafood but because of the halt in the fishing season, his client was not able to obtain the amount of seafood that was requested. Puran noted that his client still has a quantity of seafood in storage and he has already paid the trawler operators for the remaining quantity. He further stated that Narine had panicked because a long time had elapsed and he still didn’t get the seafood.

The magistrate ordered that the case be transferred to Court Three for November 11.