The details of the “compensation” package accepted by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) to drop a highly-publicised multi-million dollar tax evasion case against Glenn Lall, his wife Bhena and a remigrant couple are being shrouded in secrecy.
“People’s tax affairs are very private information,” GRA boss Khurshid Sattaur told Stabroek News yesterday before abruptly ending a telephone call placed to him.
Sattaur was unmoved to provide details on the deal made, even when it was pointed out to him that GRA is a state agency and should be accountable to the public.
It is unclear whether the compensation involved payment of a portion of the approximately $100M the GRA claimed the Lalls and Narootandeo and Gharbassi Brijnanan attempted to cheat the agency of when the remigrant couple imported two luxury vehicles. The accusation was that the Brijnanans made use of the remigrant scheme for the benefit of the Lalls and not themselves.
However, sources close to the case are denying that any money was paid to GRA as part of a deal to settle the matter. One source insisted that no money was paid either by the Lalls or the remigrant couple. The source also said it was the GRA that asked for the matter to be settled and not the quartet.
Both the Lalls and the Brijnanans had denied the charges filed against them.
Sattaur, when first asked about the settlement yesterday, inquired whether this newspaper had received his press statement on the resolution last Friday. This newspaper responded in the affirmative and went on to explain that what is being requested was information on the compensation that was mentioned in the statement. Stabroek News informed Sattaur that his release did not provided any information in this regard.
He, in response, said this newspaper needed to ask the other party for the information. When asked why he could not provide it, he said, “If somebody ask you that, would you want them to know?”
Sattaur, in his statement, which was issued hours after the matter was dismissed by the court, said there was an “amicable resolution today” and the GRA had “agreed to accept compensation.”
His statement gave the impression that the decision was arrived at on the day the statement was dispatched. However, Stabroek News was reliably informed days before that the GRA had decided to drop the matter and had returned the two luxury vehicles to the remigrants. Contact was made with Sattaur last Monday concerning this information and he said that he was unaware and would have to check with his lawyers.
Two days later, GRA prosecutor Sandil Kissoon attempted to have the charges withdrawn, saying that a resolution had been reached. This was two days before the scheduled hearing. However, Magistrate Judy Latchman stated that after considering the application and the level of publicity which the matters had attracted, it was in the public’s interest for it to be called and dealt with on the original court date.
No information on the settlement was provided to the court.
Attorney Khemraj Ramjattan, when contacted last Friday about details of the settlement, had said that he was overseas and he was not aware of the details. He advised this newspaper to make contact with another defence attorney, Robin Hunte. Attempts to contact Hunte were unsuccessful.
The Lalls are also abroad and this newspaper was unable to make contact with the Brijnanans. None of the four was present during the hearing when the charges were dismissed.
Questionable
Observers say the outcome of the case is questionable, particularly since Lall had professed his innocence from the beginning and declared that he had done nothing wrong.
“If they were so confident that they were innocent, then why enter into compensation talks? It just does not make sense,” a source said, while adding that given the high level of publicity in this case it should have been prosecuted to the end.
The source accused the GRA of seeking to find a shortcut as it appeared that it “lacked confidence” about winning the case. The source said given what has happened, one gets the impression that the motive behind initiating the prosecution was dragging the Lalls “through the mud” so as to shame them.
Some observers say too the outcome of the case does not look good for Sattaur, in particular, since it is the second case in which he has recently withdrawn charges against Glenn Lall after very publicly pursuing the charge.
The first case was based on a claim by Sattaur that he had been threatened by Lall. Sattaur later withdrew the charge, saying the publicity was harming the image of the GRA and affecting staff.
Lall had told Stabroek News that the matter was “nothing to fight about” and that the charges were “trumped up.” He made it clear that the Brijnanans were his friends and he was the only “family” they had in Guyana.
Lall was adamant that the prosecution was a political action and the latest attempt to “muzzle and close” Kaieteur News because of the stand that the newspaper has taken against government corruption.
The Brijnanans’ son, Navin Sankar, who is a GRA customs officer, had attempted to prevent his colleagues from seizing the two vehicles. Nothing has been heard about any disciplinary action being taken against him for his conduct and the latest word received by this newspaper is that he is still on the job.
It had been claimed that the charges against the Lalls and the remigrants were part of a wider investigation into the suspected abuse of remigrant duty-free concessions. This newspaper was told that questions were raised by the scores of luxury vehicles frequently spotted on the country’s roadways.
The Auditor General’s office, under the direction of the GRA Board of Directors, was tasked with looking into duty-free concessions granted to remigrants from 2010 to 2014. However, at the time the quartet was charged 2013 was the year being looked at.
The Brijnanans became the focus after it was reported that the Lalls were using the two vehicles they had imported.
To date, no other charges have been laid against anyone else as a result of the investigation, fuelling suspicion that the Lalls might have indeed been willfully targeted.
