Six custom officials from various departments were in police custody up to last night facing allegations about their involvement in the Fidelity Investment polar beer smuggling scam that has triggered a bribery probe.
Of the six, four were detained on Thursday night while the other two were arrested yesterday. One of the persons detained is a senior customs official at the John Fernandes terminal at Back Road, Mandela Avenue where the polar beers reportedly passed through before the shipment was handed over to Fidelity.
Sources said that the four senior Guyana Revenue Authority officials, who were detained and questioned after President Bharrat Jagdeo mobilised a multi-sector team to probe the matter, have been tightlipped but an official of Fidelity is spilling details and implicating other officials in the smuggling scam.
The Fidelity official was at Eve Leary on Thursday cooperating with the authorities. It is as a result of that meeting that the four persons were detained. According to sources, a series of charges is pending against the Fidelity official and corruption charges are likely to be added to the list. Since the probe intensified on Thursday two GRA officials have been sent on leave and two others are being closely monitored following revelations from a Fidelity official about a $70M payout to customs to facilitate the passage of 73,000 cases of polar beers leaving the wharf under the category of ‘assorted soft drinks’.
The Fidelity official alleged that a customs broker attached to the company struck the deal with GRA in January this year.
The broker remains in police custody.
The bribery probe is reported to have exposed corrupt dealings of several GRA officials and it has also raised questions about a possible smuggling ring being operated in the country for sometime now.
