Last Updated on Tuesday, 7 October 2025, 22:58 by Writer
Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall on Tuesday denied that the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) targeted city businessmen Azruddin Mohamed and his father Nazar “Shell” Mohamed in getting them indicted on fraud and money laundering charges in the United States (U.S.).
Mr Nandlall said the 11-count indictment shows that the U.S. investigators were watching the Mohameds during the PPPC and A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) administrations spanning the 2017-2024 period. “What that means is that this process commenced long before the PPP got into office. In fact, it spanned two governments of Guyana and two governments of the United States; different governments of the United States and different governments of Guyana,” he said on his social media programme, “Issues In The News”.
The U.S. grand jury indictment unsealed on Monday linked the charges to gold exports and the importation of a Lamborghini luxury car aimed at allegedly defrauding the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) of taxes.
Mr Nandlall referred to the Mohameds’ “own pronouncements” stating that for most of the period during which the offences were allegedly committed, they had enjoyed close relations with the PPPC. He questioned how the PPPC could now be accused of being part of a process of “political persecution.” “One has to be delusional to entertain that kind of thinking,” he added. He rubbished “outrageous” claims that the PPP has the ability to influence the “mighty” U.S. Department of Justice or American law enforcement agencies.
Hours after the indictment was unsealed, Azruddin Mohamed said the sanctions by the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in June 2024 and the grand jury’s charges were “personal” because he was increasingly being regarded as a political threat to the PPPC.
His We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) political party won 16 National Assembly seats at the September 1 general and regional elections and he could take up his seat as Guyana’s next opposition leader when the parliament convenes.
But, Mr Nandlall indicated that being a parliamentarian and any related constitutional office holder would not prevent such a person from facing the criminal justice system here or in the U.S. “Membership in the National Assembly of Guyana and any other attendant post that one may hold in that regard confers no type of legal immunity against charge or prosecution of any criminal offence under the laws of Guyana or the laws of the United States of America,” he said.
The WIN leader said those offences were allegedly committed in Guyana and that he and his father would fight any extradition request in the courts.
If found guilty on the charges of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, the Mohameds, who were sanctioned by the United States Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), separately, could face a maximum of 20 years on each count, maximum supervised release of three years, a maximum fine of US$250,000 or twice the gross pecuniary gain or loss.
On the charges of wire fraud, they could also be sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment and maximum supervised release of three years and a fine of US$250,000 or twice the gross pecuniary gain or loss. The grand jury is also seeking a maximum of 20 years’ imprisonment, three years supervised release and a fine of US$500,000 or the value of the property involved in the transaction for conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Mr Mohamed is tipped to be Guyana’s opposition leader after his WIN party won 16 seats from 109,075 votes in the September elections.
The U.S. is also asking the court that “upon conviction…as alleged in this Indictment, the defendants shall forfeit to the United States any property, real or personal, which constitutes or is derived from proceeds traceable to such offense.”
The indictment states that the property directly subject to forfeiture as a result of the alleged offenses includes, but is not limited to a shipment containing approximately US$5.3 million in gold bars shipped from Guyana by Mohamed ‘s Enterprise and seized at Miami International Airport on June 11, 2024.
The unsealed indictment states that in the case of Mr Azruddin, from in or around 2017, and continuing through on or about June 11 , 2024, in Miami-Dade County in the Southern District of Florida, and elsewhere, the defendants, did knowingly, and with the intent to further the objects of the conspiracy, combine, conspire, confederate, and agree with each other and others, known and unknown to the grand jury, to commit offenses against the United States.
The indictment states that the purpose of the conspiracy was for the defendants to unlawfully enrich themselves and defraud the government of Guyana of taxes and royalties owed. The U.S. accuses the Mohameds of reusing empty boxes with intact Guyana Revenue Authority and Guyana Gold Board seals for “shipments of gold to make it appear that Mohamed’s Enterprise had paid Guyana taxes and royalties on shipments of gold when, in truth and in fact, Mohamed’s Enterprise had not paid them on those shipments of gold.”
The grand jury also accuses the Mohameds of paying bribes to Guyanese government officials, including customs officials, so that customs officials would accept shipments of gold by Mohamed’s Enterprise with duplicate paperwork and reused GRA and GGB seals from Miami to Mohamed’s Enterprise office in Guyana thereby avoiding the proper payment of Guyanese taxes and royalties.
In terms of the Lamborghini purchase and exportation to Guyana, the U.S. grand jury says Azruddin Mohamed directed an unnamed individual to acquire a Lamborghini from California that cost approximately US$680,000 for his benefit, caused the shipment of the Lamborghini via private and commercial interstate carrier from Miami to Guyana, directed Individual 1 to create an invoice to make it falsely appear that the Lamborghini cost US$75,300 when, in truth and in fact, the Lamborghini cost approximately US$680,000, and caused the false Lamborghini invoice to be presented to the GRA and thereby avoided over US$1 million dollars in taxes he owed to the GRA.
The Mohameds were once investors in Vreed-en-Hoop Shorebase but after word surfaced that they could have been sanctioned by OFAC, they exited the investment because U.S. laws bar companies and individuals from doing business with OFAC-sanctioned individuals and entities.
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