Jagdeo said at a press conference at the Office of the President yesterday that he expressed his displeasure with the head of the Unit on Old Year’s night. Acknowledging that under the old and new Acts, there has not been a single case, he said they had a “strong talk” about this. He noted the Unit has the authority to request any information and “they should be doing that and making the case”.
The president said the Unit has done some work on financial flows and assessments of assets but he cannot disclose more. “I’ve seen a few reports so to be fair I need to say that they have done this and I know that they’re in collaboration with external agencies but by the very nature of these issues you can’t speak all about it”, he said. “But I think we need to move to actually (prosecute) because that was the purpose of this legislation…to go after assets that people accumulate from criminal proceeds and that they build up so that’s very important”, he added responding to a question on whether under the legislation the government could seize the local assets of drug kingpin Roger Khan and other drug traffickers convicted overseas.
