The origin of 476 pounds of gold, believed to have originated from Guyana before being stolen in Curacao in in 2012, is not being investigated by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) even though questions continue to linger and an audit of the Guyana Gold Board found that the initial local probe was sloppy, presumably to protect those who may have been involved in the shipment.
Head of SOCU Sydney James recently told Stabroek News that the case has not come up officially before his unit as no formal request has been made through the Com-missioner of Police to look at it.
Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman had previously expressed certainty that the gold, worth US$11.5 million, came from Guyana. There was also indication that the government was looking to reopen the investigation into the shipment, which occurred under the former PPP/C administration.
Almost five years after, the circumstances under which the gold left Guyana, who owned it and those involved in the transportation arrangement remain unknown. Observ-ers have pointed out that given the amount of gold involved, a special investigation should have been conducted to answer all outstanding questions and to prosecute those involv-ed. Some have gone as far as to say that there should be a Commission of Inquiry (CoI).
James said that all matters, including the Curacao gold shipment, have to be referred to the unit before it is investigated. He stressed that the unit, which is a component of the Guyana Police Force and which is answerable to the Com-missioner of Police, cannot take it upon itself to investigate a matter.
“It will have to be referred through the Com-missioner of Police,” he said.
Despite what people say, he pointed out, all matters are referred to the unit through the Police Com-missioner. Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan, James said, elaborated on this procedure when he presented the unit’s Standard Operating Procedures to the National Assembly.
The gold was stolen from a Guyanese fishing boat Summer Bliss.
News agency Amigoe had reported in 2012 that six men carrying guns, wearing masks and hoodies along with police jackets, stormed the boat. At gunpoint, they pushed the 51-year-old captain as well as the three Guyanese crewmen onto the ground. The robbers knew their way around the vessel as they walked directly to the three metal boxes with the gold bars and spent only five minutes removing them.
It was suspected that the gold stolen in Curaçao was smuggled to Suriname in batches over a period of time, after which it was melted into gold bars, loaded in the Summer Bliss and transported to the Dutch territory.
Based on the information this newspaper received, the vessel was on its way to Miami but made a stop in Curaçao.
Thorough investigation needed
An audit into the operations of the Gold Board, conducted by accounting firm Ram and McRae, urged a thorough probe. Its report has been forwarded to SOCU for a criminal investigation to be conducted.
“The reports presented to us suggest a less than serious attempt to pursue the investigations with a view to protecting persons who may have been involved in the unlawful shipment. We find it curious that the Guyana Gold Board, the principal regulator was not a party to the investigations,” the report said. It pointed out that the Gold Board Act gives the GGB access to the premises and records of payments and inventory of dealers and that right ought to have been exercised with a view to determining any significant variances.
The report said that of particular concern was that the Curacao representatives stated that they would only provide further information requested by a team from Guyana that investigated if the request came from the Guyana Public Prosecutor to the Public Prosecutor in Curacao. It revealed that a letter was sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions on September 16, 2015, enquiring as to whether the report was forwarded to that office for action. As of the November 4, 2015, a response was not received. “A thorough inter-agency investigation into the delays in the investigations should be carried out to determine the cause of the delays or inaction. Further efforts should be made to pursue the investigations with assistance from Curacao and other regional and international agencies as appropriate. The method of communication with foreign authorities of gold shipments should be reviewed to determine the safeguards necessary to prevent such shipments from going undetected,” the report recommended.
The report had noted that following the gold heist, a team from the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) visited Curacao and a report was compiled. “The report was provided to the Minister of Natural Resources and the Envi-ronment and it appears that recommended actions were not pursued, reducing the chances of identifying and prosecuting the shipper,” the audit report also said. “We believe that the occasion provided an opportunity for the Gold Board and the police to carry out visits to the business places of the larger gold dealers in Guyana. We are surprised that this was not done by any of the regulatory or enforcement agencies,” it added.
It had noted that the Summer Bliss was registered at Port Georgetown as a cargo vessel in the name of Deosarran Shivpaul, whose address was Lot 23, Tenze Firme, Canal Number One, West Bank Demerara. However, the police were unable to trace this person at the address, which was an empty plot of land.
“Our recommendation is that this investigation should be pursued with such regional and international assistance considered necessary. The objective is to bring this matter to a conclusion, ascertain how it was perpetrated, punish the wrongdoers and put safeguards in place to avoid any recurrence,” the audit report said.
Collusion probe
James told Stabroek News that at the moment SOCU was conducting an investigation into whether there was collusion between employees of the Gold Board and businessman Saddiqi Rasul.
Rasul was charged on April 3 with defrauding a local commercial bank of a total of $956 million.
It was alleged that between March 21 and March 22, at Bartica, with intent to defraud, Rasul obtained from the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry $96 million, $290 million, $89 million, $45 million, $298 million and $138 million by falsely pretending that he had cash in a Citizens Bank account to honour corresponding Citizens Bank cheques. The owner of SSS Minerals Trading was released on $3 million bail for the six charges read to him, after he appeared before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan in a Georgetown court. He has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges
As a consequence of the investigation into Rasul’s activities, Gold Board Manager Lisaveta Ramotar, Deputy GM Andrea Seelochan and Compliance Officer Suzanne Bullen were sent on administrative leave to facilitate a separate investigation into allegations of money laundering.
James declined to divulge much information on this case while only noting that the unit was conducting an investigation into possible collusion as requested by the forensic audit report and Trotman.
He said that the challenge with giving out information in this instance is that the investigation is ongoing and releasing information it would be prejudicial and not in keeping with correct procedure.
James also indicated that the unit also has hundreds of gold smuggling investigations before it.
