WIN supporters sue banks for closing their personal accounts

Last Updated on Saturday, 23 August 2025, 10:50 by Writer

Five candidates of We Invest in Nationhood (WIN), led by United States (U.S.)-sanctioned businessman Azruddin Mohamed, have sued three commercial banks for closing their accounts because they are associated with that political party.

Through their lawyer Darren Wade, the banks sued are Citizens Bank Guyana, Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry and Demerara Bank Limited.

Those filing the lawsuits are Dexter George against Citizens Bank, Ramona Woolford against Citizens Bank, Dexter George and Joel Ramesh against Demerara Bank, and Petal Munroe and Alexia Henry against Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry.

In separate cases but on identical grounds, they are seeking declarations that the WIN remains a distinct entity from its individual members and no sanctions have been imposed on the party or its other candidates, their bank’s actions are are unlawful, improper, and discriminatory; their individual bank breached its overriding duty of good faith implicitly incorporated into contractual relation, the banks breached their trust and confidence, and they failed to comply with statutory and regulatory requirements pursuant to Section 18(4) of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the financing of Terrorism Act.

The now former bank account holders are each seeking GY$100,000 in damages as well as aggravated damages and any other order the court deems just.

The grounds for the applications include that they had maintained their accounts in good standing and conducted all transactions in accordance with the banks’ policies and procedures. However, they said the banks did not provide any detailed reasons for the decisions to close their accounts.

They said the banks’ decisions were taken although they did not engage in any unusual or suspicious banking activities, nor were they notified of any breach of those banks’ terms and conditions prior to the closure notice.

They said the sudden and unexplained termination of the their accounts have caused them significant inconvenience, reputational damage, and disruption to their financial affairs.

The applicants said the actions of the banks constitute a breach of the their right to natural justice, including the right to be heard.

Further, they said the banks failed to comply with statutory and regulatory requirements pursuant to Section 18(4) of the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) Act, Cap 10:11 a reporting entity which forms a reasonable suspicion of money laundering, terrorist financing or other unlawful activity is mandated to file a Suspicious Transaction Report with the Financial Intelligence unit.

They said no corresponding bank in the U.S. has raised any concerns regarding the candidates affiliated with the WIN party.

They said U.S. Ambassador Nicole Theriot has explicitly stated that the termination is unrelated to the United States Government and has clarified that the U.S. Government has distanced itself from the matter.

The applicants said that at no time they were considered high-risk clients due to political exposure and possible proximity to a sanctioned person, at no time did the banks request additional documentation or clarification to verify their identity or the legitimacy of their transactions, contrary to the mandated requirements of the AML/CFT Act and Bank of Guyana guidance.

They said their accounts were terminated as a result of them being on the WIN party list of candidates, but the banks had no lawful or reasonable basis to terminate their accounts solely on the ground of their association with WIN.

They are also relying on the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control’s purported explanation that U.S. financial institutions would not violate sanctions for maintaining the account of or processing a transaction involving a non-sanctioned organization or no sanctioned members of that organization solely because another member of that organization is sanctioned.

They also cite the Carter Center election observer mission in Guyana noting that although political campaigning has been generally peaceful, several issues risk undermining the integrity of the electoral process, including local authorities’ approvals of campaign events, alleged intimidation of public workers, and overcompliance by local banks with recent U.S. sanctions, which threatens to hinder political participation.