Two days after the February 6th editorial in this newspaper lamenting the lack of action by the authorities on addressing the proceeds of crime and money laundering, arrests were made at the CJIA, Timehri.
On Wednesday charges were read to a Herstelling family after what was said to be an exhaustive investigation.
A statement from the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) said that charges of money laundering and conspiracy to launder over $4.1b were brought against a Herstelling, East Bank Demerara family after close to three years of investigation.
It identified the accused as Kenneth Kellawan Ramnarine, a taxi driver; Damian Brandon Ramnarine, a salesman and Yevette Nalini Saroop, a businesswoman, all of Lot 274 Somerset Court, Herstelling.
After disaggregating the 268 charges, SOCU then delivered a bombshell. The Head of SOCU, Assistant Police Commissioner, Fazil Karimbaksh said that the sources of funds declarations submitted to several commercial banks show that most of the deposits were attributed to sales proceeds from biodegradable food boxes sold to local businesses, particularly Chinese restaurants.
The Head of SOCU said that a substantial number of wire transfers, amounting to over $3.7 billion were sent to twenty-two companies in China under the pretext of importing raw materials to produce bio-degradable products, while other sums were disguised locally totalling over $4.1 billion dollars.
Mr Karimbaksh went on to say in a press release that his investigators did not find any legitimate source of these funds, which the accused wire-transferred out of Guyana.
He said: “The accused’s actions suggested that they may be operating as nominees for some Chinese businesses and also facilitating tax evasion through Ken’s Trading Enterprise. (The) team of investigators, which comprised several senior officers, contacted several prominent businesses in Georgetown during the course of the investigations, which commenced in August 2020, whom the accused listed on their source of fund declaration forms, and these businesses vehemently denied doing such large transactions with them”.
Whatever the Herstelling trio might be guilty of it would appear that they were proxies for businesses -Chinese or otherwise – operating here and remitting proceeds to China in hard currency.
The obvious question is why didn’t SOCU compromise the entire network before preferring charges against the Herstelling trio? Certainly in the scheme of things, the local family would be considered low hanging fruit and operating for larger operators here – the persons who were hiding moneys from licit or illicit operations and then transferring in hard currency and possible affecting the foreign exchange market at key moments.
Those are the people who should be before the courts and those charges could then have formed the basis for an approach to the Chinese government for a range of reliefs. While referring to the Chinese connection, SOCU made no mention of what steps, if any, would be taken against the nearly two dozen Chinese companies that were the recipients of the transfers. There has also been no word from the government.
While the offences were said to have occurred from 2018 to 2021, SOCU didn’t resist a political patina to its work when it said that the investigation began in August 2020, the same month that the PPP/C government took office. This is further evidence that our lead investigators tend to be driven by political signals. What triggered a SOCU probe in August 2020 instead of 2018? The big question remains if this probe has been running since August 2020 why are the Ramnarines the only ones charged or before court?
In a letter in yesterday’s Sunday Stabroek, Chartered Accountant and attorney Christopher Ram queried the SOCU action and adverted to the implications for the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).
“For three years, SOCU would have had on its radar the Guyanese family used as the front for the real criminals operating in Guyana. No doubt, with appropriate inducement and bargaining, those persons could provide precise information on the Chinese persons in Guyana on whose behalf they were acting. Additionally, SOCU as an arm of the Guyana Police Force has vast powers of investigation and arrest for cause in criminal matters. It could have gone to court for permission to intercept telecommunication between the family and the locally resident Chinese and the beneficiaries in China, and prevent persons from leaving the country, as it did with members of the Guyanese family.
“It could have used the several Business Directories in China to determine the bona fides of the recipients in China of the billions shipped out of Guyana, or have a SOCU member as part of our trade missions to China, or utilise our representatives in China, among various other creative opportunities.
“After the distant and forgotten Sugate episode, SOCU had the opportunity to nail the real criminals and put an end to the apparent immunity with which Chinese businesses appear to operate in Guyana, whether in natural resources, preferential access to prime land, tax evasion and the procurement of Government permits. We might even have found out those businesses which are extensions of the People’s Republic of China (the State) and those which are genuine, privately owned”, Mr Ram said.
In the aftermath of the Su Zhirong scandal where VICE News recorded him as saying that bribes paid by Chinese businessmen ease the way for doing business here, it behoves the authorities here to embark on a wider probe and enlist Beijing’s assistance in determining how the country is being robbed of tax revenue and foreign exchange. While the charges are somewhat of a breakthrough, they barely skim the surface based on the account provided by SOCU.
