After being defrauded of more than $2.2 million by way of a bogus cheque it received, Caribbean Chemicals yesterday warned business owners to be alert and not fall victim to a “well organised” gang preying on businesses countrywide.
“We understand that our company is not the only company to have fallen victim to this scam and we would like to alert the business community to be on their guard,” Director of Caribbean Chemicals Francesca Pires said at a press conference yesterday.
She explained that someone had called the office identifying himself as a farmer and enquiring about fertiliser purchases. After receiving the necessary information, the person said he would go to the office to make the purchase.
The person then went to the office and paid with a Demerara Bank cheque for 350 bags of fertiliser,
200 bags of 15:15:15 and 150 bags of urea, totalling approximately $2.2 million.
A red flag was raised when a delivery van turned up at Caribbean Chemicals’ office asking for a forwarding address for the farming company and management realized that the individual who made the purchases had given a bogus address.
Shortly after, Caribbean Chemicals’ local bank – the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI) – notified the company of the bogus cheque and the police were alerted.
Pires said she believes her company was swindled because it was lax in adhering to specific financial guidelines given by the GBTI, which includes not accepting typewritten cheques from first-time customers.
Further, she said, on review it was realized that internal protocol was breached by employees. She opined that maybe eager to garner sales for the product employees bypassed standard procedures, including not asking the purchaser for a form of identification.
She said the company has not yet decided what disciplinary action would be taken.
Police are currently investigating the financial crime and the company officials say video surveillance footage which shows the physical description of the perpetrator, has been handed over to them.
