The Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) will function under the guidance of intelligence provided by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), according to recently-appointed head Sydney James.
Given the recent legal battle between convicted drug trafficker Roger Khan’s company Aurelius Inc and auto dealer Harry Rambarran over ownership of Willems Timber, questions have been raised as to why the SOCU would not investigate the possibility of financial gains made through illicit means without a formal complaint being filed.
When Stabroek News asked James to address the process by which SOCU would investigate suspicious transactions, he said the unit would not be targeting any individuals without intelligence provided by the FIU.
The question of how a convicted drug trafficker could have an ongoing legal battle in Guyana utilising a company that may have come into fruition through illegal means has not been addressed as yet.
Attorney General Anil Nandlall told Stabroek News that it would have to be known that the company was established with illegal funds.
The mandate of both the FIU and the SOCU is to investigate suspicious transactions and all the financial transactions of a convicted drug trafficker should fall within the scope of necessary investigation without a formal complaint being issued.
Nandlall told Stabroek News that the SOCU will act as the investigative arm of the FIU and should the FIU have cause for an issue to be looked into the specialised crime unit would pursue the matter. He said it would stem from the FIU based on intelligence reported.
The SOCU was conceptualised by Cabinet in November of last year and yet the $63.1 million in funding to construct the headquarters was only approved by Cabinet in late August of this year. Currently, the unit has no operations base to commence preliminary administrative work.
The government has faced criticism over its failure to fully operationalise the SOCU to date while at the same time sounding alarm over the need for the passage of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counterfeiting the Financing of Terrorism (amendment) Bill.
While government is continuously calling for on the passage of bill, there has been a significant lag in the establishing the various non-legislative components.
Critics have pointed out that the lag in establishing the non-legislative measures and the fact that those that have been established, such as the FIU, have yielded no convictions, point to the lack of tangible efforts to improve enforcement of the existing legislation.
This inadequacy was highlighted by Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Shalimar Ali-Hack when it was revealed in March that the DPP’s office had only received one report from the FIU since the enactment of the substantive anti-money laundering law in 2009. She revealed that not only was only one report forwarded to the DPP’s office, but it was also incomplete.
Leader of the AFC Khemraj Ramjattan previously told Stabroek News that the government had jumped on an agency bandwagon to assemble a variety of bureaucratic entities but to date nothing has been done. “There is no need for any specialised ceremony to launch these specialised units to catch specialised crooks in the system,” he said. “The FIU hasn’t, not once, led to any conviction…,” he added, while noting that the amendment bill is just the legislative aspect and that the enforcement aspect was more important and would measure Guyana’s effectiveness in following through.
“This is another unit, another agency that is adding to the bureaucracy…the FIU they wanted to strengthen and they have done nothing. This is not going to give us any confidence that by passing the [amendment] legislation enforcement is going to be followed through,” he had said.
James was sworn in as both head of the SOCU and as Assistant Commissioner of Police on September 5. The skilled investigators who will comprise the unit have not appointed as yet.
