The discontinuing of all criminal matters against beverage company Kong Inc and Joshua Safeek of Fidelity Investments has raised questions about the level of collusion between Fidelity and Customs officers who were charged two weeks ago in an alleged tax evasion scam, observers say.
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Shalimar Ali-Hack is yet to offer an explanation as to why she entered a nolle prosequi (discontinued prosecution) in the matters involving Safeek and the companies though there are reports that she was dissatisfied with how the prosecution was progressing.
Attorney-at-law and GRA prosecutor, Gino Persaud, who was appearing in the matters involving Safeek, had expressed surprise at the prosecutions being dropped when contacted saying that he was completely taken aback when the information was relayed to him on a second-hand basis.
“I am unaware of the basis on which these charges were dropped, the DPP should be asked to provide a reason for discontinuing the charges,” Persaud had stated.
Commissioner-General of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), Khurshid Sattaur, who had instituted the charges that were dropped, told Stabroek News last week that he was in no position to challenge the DPP on her decision to discontinue the matters since according to him, “she is the sole authority on the issue”.
Sattaur briefly commented that he was advised that there was a lack of evidence to properly prosecute the matters.
He stressed that he could only act on the advice of the DPP, while noting that it was based on her advice that the matters were first instituted.
It was on the basis of the DPP’s advice therefore that the matters could be discontinued, Sattaur added. He said too, that he respected the decision to drop the charges.
Sattaur declined to comment on the possible implications of the DPP’s action on the flood of charges recently instituted against 13 Customs officers and two brokers.
There are unconfirmed reports that Safeek intends to cooperate with the DDP with regard to the charges recently filed.
Previously, Safeek had declared that he had exposed corruption within the GRA, and alluded to cleaning up fraudulent activities of the Customs body. Safeek also accused the GRA of victimizing him because he exposed such activities within the body.
And in a task force report released earlier this year, it was stated that Safeek went to President Bharrat Jagdeo to relate his concerns (about GRA) in April 2008, and the President proceeded to set up the task force to investigate allegations of corruption within the revenue body.
While Safeek has strongly denied that Fidelity bribed Customs officers, Sattaur had said publicly last year that the revenue body found it somewhat contradictory for Safeek to claim that he was not the person who paid massive bribes to the Customs officers, “yet rather than attempt to address the deception that was perpetrated against him by his own agent [the broker] and take the necessary redress in law to correct this major criminal act of embezzlement, would want to advise the GRA on how to deal with corruption within its folds.”
The revenue boss had said too, that Safeek made bold and presumptuous statements about cleaning up corruption at Customs without providing any supporting evidence. He said further that Safeek was denying that bribes were paid to Customs officers, “though there was evidently some level of collusion to engage in fraudulent acts through the filing of false declarations, purporting to import soft drinks that were in fact Polar beer”.
The GRA had slapped Safeek with 11 charges and one of his subsidiaries Kong Inc, with a joint indictment in relation to a quantity of allegedly uncustomed Polar beer it said was imported into Guyana by Safeek’s company.
Each charge had related to a specific quantity of Polar beer and the total quantity amounted to 195,932 cases of the beverage.
The GRA had estimated the alleged evasion of duties and taxes to be in excess of $300 million.
Subsequent to the charges being laid, President Jagdeo had initiated an independent investigation into alleged bribery activities at the Customs and Trade Administration (CTA) since Fidelity was alleged to have bribed Customs officers to clear the Polar beer shipment.
Fifteen persons have since been charged based on recommendations from the investigation, but the task force conducting the investigation had also recommended that a new charge be laid against Fidelity over false documents it said the company had submitted to the team. No such charge was laid.
The investigation involving Fidelity and Customs officers was initiated at a special meeting convened by President Jagdeo on April 7, 2008 where he stated that there was a scheme to systematically defraud the CTA of revenue and he wanted to get to the bottom of it.
On January 15, 2008 a team of Customs officers had raided Fidelity and found in excess of 73,000 cases of Polar beer for which no import documents could be produced.
It was then claimed by Fidelity that the broker had substituted invoices for Polar beer with invoices for mixed flavour aerated beverages – the duty rate being vastly different for the two.
The Internal Affairs Department of the GRA then conducted its own investigation and arrived at the following conclusions on March 28, 2008: The Polar beer had been smuggled into the country; some of the beer was smuggled via trawlers and discharged at a Parika landing; the rest of the beer was illegally brought in at the rear of containers which were declared to contain only aerated beverages.
