Business

President Irfaan Ali on Thursday said the Suriname government would be formally asked to explain why a number of detained Guyanese fishermen have been prevented from speaking with their lawyers. Minutes after he was briefed by Guyana’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Hugh Todd that lawyers, who were hired by the Guyana Embassy in Suriname, were prohibited from seeing the detainees, Dr ...

In the wake of the United States Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control’s (OFAC) sanctions on Nazar Mohamed and Azruddin Mohamed, President Irfaan Ali on Thursday announced that a committee has been established to explore ways of further tightening the already rigid gold export system and widening the net on gold export transactions by other dealers. “I’ve asked the ...

-Nazar Mohamed resigns from neighbourhood council President Irfaan Ali on Thursday said government decided to impose sanctions on Nazar Mohamed and his son, Azruddin as well their businesses without any evidence from the United States (U.S.), but relied on the announcement by the Treasury Department. “Suppose, at the time of sanctions, there was a transaction in process, gold being sold ...

A New York-based Guyanese businessman has been placed on GY$600,000 bail on a charge of exporting gold without a licence, police said Wednesday. The suspect is Saffee Ahmad, a businessma of 123rd Street, Queens New York, and Lot 38 Roraima Scheme, Versailles, West Bank Demerara. However, a source said Ahmad was connected to 52-year-old Shameena Ahmad of 38 Roraima Scheme, ...

The government officially launched its eye-testing and spectacles programme which will benefit thousands of vulnerable individuals on Tuesday at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC). The programme will see these individuals accessing financial assistance from the government to get their eyes tested and outfitted with the required spectacles. Individuals under 18 years of age, and those over 65, will receive ...

The Guyana Gold Board (GGB) is finalising preparations to revoke the Mohameds gold dealership license, following the United States’ imposition of sanctions on Nazar “Shell” Mohamed and his son Azruddin, according to well-placed sources. The effect of the sanctions by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for allegedly defrauding Guyana of US$50 million on 10 kilogrammes ...

The nominees by the Opposition Leader and the Bank of Guyana on the Investment Committee of the Natural Resources Fund into which oil revenues are deposited have been approved retroactively and could now sit on that decision-making body, according to the Official Gazette. The Opposition Leader’s nominee, city businessman Dr Terrence Campbell and Mr Ganesh Sugrim were nominated by the ...

Former Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman on Saturday said the United States (U.S.) had been conducting a separate investigation into gold smuggling involving Colombia, Venezuela and Guyana during the previous People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) administration. He also said that a local investigation by the A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) coalition administration was scrapped when the ...

United States (US) Ambassador to Guyana, Nicole Theriot on Friday said there was a “preponderance of evidence” against the Mohameds and Permanent Secretary Mae Thomas on whom sanctions have been imposed for alleged corruption and defended the decision not to have involved the Guyana government in the more than two and half years of investigations. “They have to keep these ...

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday said that then Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Mae Thomas was last year asked by United States law enforcers about wealthy Guyanese businessmen Nazar Mohammed and his son, Azruddin, who were slapped with sanctions for alleged corruption in Guyana. Ms Thomas’ mobile phone was seized and her United States visa revoked ...