Attorney General accepts Azruddin Mohamed’s cash payment for court costs

Last Updated on Thursday, 19 March 2026, 23:24 by Writer

Attorney General Anil Nandlall on Thursday accepted the bulk of High Court-awarded costs in currency notes and some coins from city businessmen Azruddin and Nazar Mohamed who lost a High Court case related to their United States (US) extradition committal proceedings.

Mr Mohamed showed Demerara Waves Online News a Guyana government receipt for GY$900,500 with an outstanding balance of GY$99,500.

He said the Attorney General’s Chambers accepted up to GY$500 in coins in keeping with the Bank of Guyana Act.

The payment was transported in two wheelbarrows into the Attorney General’s Chambers’ compound on Carmichael Street after Mr Nandlall issued a formal warning that if the court costs were not paid immediately he would return to the court to seek redress to enforce the order of costs.

The Attorney General confirmed on Facebook that the small denominations of bills that Mr Mohamed paid took several hours to count, causing workers to remain past 4:30 p.m. “Public servants were forced to remain until about 5:30 p.m. to count this money. These people have to travel far distances to get home. But all of this is just fun for Azruddin Mohamed. However, he was forced to wait until all was counted! In the end, after all this clumsy fanfare, he did not pay the full sum of one million dollars ($1,000,000) and will have return to pay the balance,” Mr Nandlall said.

Speaking with Demerara Waves Online News outside the Attorney General’s Chambers, Mr Mohamed said GY$500,000 each is for Mr Nandlall and the home affairs minister, Oneidge Walrond.

He said that was in contrast to the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) saying during last year that no one could do business with the Mohameds because they were sanctioned in June 2024 by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) over alleged financial crimes.

“The AG accepted the money although on the campaign trail, they mentioned to everyone that you can’t do business, you can’t accept cash from the Mohameds or else you will be sanctioned and your visas revoked,” he said.

After the sanctions for allegedly smuggling more than 10,000 kilogrammes of gold and relatedly evading more than US$50 million in taxes from the Guyana government, the Bank of Guyana cancelled the Mohameds’ foreign exchange dealer’s ‘cambio’ licence and commercial banks shut down their accounts.

“I don’t have bank accounts and this is some of the cash I had at hand so that is why I brought this today,” he said, adding that the money was from his child’s piggybank.

Asked if he could not have asked someone to write a cheque on his behalf, he said he could not have done so and was unsure whether a cheque would have been accepted.

The Bank of Guyana Act states that coins are legal tender for settlement of public or private debt of GY$100 dollars in GY$1.00 coins; GY$250 in GY$5.00 coins, and GY$500 in GY$10 coins.

The law also states that currency notes can be accepted without limitation on any amount.

In light of the refusal of more coins, Mr Mohamed said they would obtain more currency notes and return to the Attorney General’s Chambers “because we always love to honour our obligations.”

“I always like to honour the rules of the country,” said Mr Mohamed who is leader of the main parliamentary opposition We Invest in Nationhood (WIN).

Mr Mohamed said he would be appealing the decisions of the Guyana High Court and Guyana Court of Appeal on the home affairs minister’s alleged political bias in issuing Principal Magistrate Judy Latchman with the Authority To Proceed to issue arrest warrants and hold extradition committal proceedings.