Although Kaieteur News (KN) publisher Glenn Lall maintains that he is being targeted by the government and the tax authority, which he accused of a plot to shut down his newspaper, the conflict appears to be subsiding into amicable settlements.
An audit by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), which KN had said was intended to target it with the aim of shuttering its operations, never got underway. There has been no explanation to date by the GRA for this.
More recently, during a hearing on tax evasion charges filed against Lall, his wife Bhena and their remigrant friends, Narootandeo and Gharbassi Brijnanan, GRA prosecutor Sandil Kissoon said talks are underway that could possibly see an amicable resolution to the matters.
In September last year, KN published over several days what it alleged to be information about a plot hatched against it by former President Bharrat Jagdeo. It cited as evidence of this what it said were emails between Jagdeo, GRA Commissioner-General Khurshid Sattaur and Attorney-General Anil Nandlall, in which they discussed financial figures for local newspapers. These emails would see KN lodging complaints against Sattaur to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Guyana and the ACCA.
According to KN, the contents of the emails revealed a secret plot to use state audits as one of the ways to stop media reportage on a number of highly corrupt issues that would cause embarrassment to the GRA and Sattaur. The emails included confidential tax information sent to Jagdeo and a copy, minus the tax information on Kaieteur News, to Nandlall.
The exchanges, the newspaper said, also spoke of how successful the threats of an audit had been on several critics of the government, including Freddie Kissoon. Kissoon, a longtime KN columnist, received up to nine assessments at one time, a move Sattaur reportedly said in the emails was like a sword of Damocles hanging over the columnist’s head.
There was no reaction from government, even with the implication of one of its ministers and the former president in the alleged plot. PPP General Secretary and Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee, when asked about the verification of the emails, indicated that it was a question best suited for Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon, because “the issue is a government issue involving a government agency”—the GRA.
The situation escalated when Sattaur later said he had been threatened by Lall. A complaint was lodged with the police and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) eventually ruled that a charge of threatening language should be made out. The threats were reportedly made during a telephone conversation between the two on August 29.
However, when the case was called for the first time on November 24, at the Sparendaam Magistrate’s Court, it was dismissed after the Magistrate informed that Sattaur had withdrawn his complaint. Prior to its dismissal, Lall pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Sattaur, who was not present at the proceedings, in a press release after maintained that Lall had threatened him but said the delay by the DPP in laying charges and the negative attention the case had drawn to the GRA were the reasons why he decided against pursuing the complaint.
He reasoned that because of the spotlight placed on the GRA, the staff were “beginning to feel the fatigue from the excessive public attention that was unwarrantedly given to the current court imbroglio….”
The audit
Meanwhile, KN alleged Sattaur had attempted to embark on an audit of it as a means of targeting the newspaper over its critical reporting of the government and of its reportage on several matters pertaining to him, including the disclosure that several of his close family members were employed at the GRA.
Sattaur subsequently denied the claim and said the audit was routine and also that the GRA’s investigations pertained to a remigrant scam in which Lall was among those suspected to be involved.
In an October 3, 2014 press release, Sattaur argued that a comprehensive audit of Kaieteur News was warranted and pointed out that the initial analysis was prompted by the recent discovery of incidents relating to the evasion of taxes by the company on imported ink and irregular and unlawful evasion of import duties on vehicles imported by re-migrants but used by Lall and his wife.
“These unlawful transactions were clear indicators and drivers for a preliminary investigation as to whether a comprehensive audit of the company or Lall was necessary. Unfortunately, Lall and the Kaieteur News were able to surreptitiously obtain this information by deceit, corruption and for illegal means and have attempted to manipulate this information to stultify efforts by the GRA to conduct the comprehensive audit of the company by creating false emails purportedly suggesting a conspiracy to destroy the newspaper,” he added.
Sattaur indicated that he would call on the police to investigate. There has been no word since on whether the police had indeed investigated how KN was able to access the confidential information.
Sattaur maintained that a comprehensive audit of a company is not designed to destroy it but rather to ensure it was compliant with the tax and revenue laws of Guyana. “Having regard to the extreme length at which the Kaieteur News would go to prevent this audit, including corrupting officers of the GRA or others unknowns to divulge sensitive and confidential information, creation and publication of fake emails, public statements suggesting audit of the company will result in its destruction, it is evident that the company may not be compliant with the tax laws,” he said.
In September 2014, the GRA attempted to seize the two vehicles which it said were at the centre of the remigrant scam that was being investigated. This also led to the revelation that the customs officer son of the Brijnanans was at odds with Sattaur.
Lall and his wife were eventually charged by the GRA and appeared in court where they denied four tax evasion charges. The Brijnanans were absent from the October 13, 2014 arraignment and the court was told that they were abroad.
‘I was targeted’
When contacted recently, Lall said no audit has been done. He maintained that mention of this intended audit was Sattaur’s attempt to scare him. “That was to try and not only scare me but intimidate me. I am now more convinced that I was targeted. I was not only targeted but I am the number one enemy of the state,” he said.
Lall told Stabroek News while he cannot recall Sattaur mentioning anything about an audit, no one to date has contacted him or his company to do anything. He stressed that his and every other newspaper buys ink from the same place and if he is involved in any wrongdoing in that regard so is everyone else.
“I was singled out. The emails between Sattaur, Jagdeo and Nandlall is very clear. Guyana needs nothing else to see this. They want an audit in an attempt to shut the paper down,” he stated.
In singling out another new entity owned by one of Jagdeo’s closest friends, Lall stressed, “Look what they are doing. It is clear that they are out to get me at all costs. They are all out to shut the paper down and imprison me. It all speaks for itself.”
Lall said that he is convinced that he would be vindicated in the court matter against him as he had done nothing wrong.
For Lall, a recorded conversation between Nandlall and KN reporter Leonard Gildarie, in which the publisher said it was clear that the lives of those at the newspaper were being threatened, was further evidence of the plot against him.
The explosive conversation, released to the police on October 27, prompted Lall to lodge a police complaint against the AG in an emotional appearance at Police Headquarters, at Eve Leary. In releasing the recording, Lall had said he had become aware of a plot to kill him and made a police complaint two weeks prior.
On the 19-minute long recording, Nandlall can be heard speaking about his knowledge of criminal activity and his use of government funds for personal expenditure. In the recording, Nandlall also disclosed that Ramotar had been in touch with Lall’s wife over the charges in the remigrant scam. Ramotar would later deny this during a press conference although he admitted that he knew her and would have conversations with her.
For around two weeks, excerpts of Nandlall’s conversation were carried by the newspaper along with calls for action to be taken against him by the government. However the government chose to focus on how the recording was obtained instead of its contents.
KN would later lodge a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which would later call on the government to take the necessary measures to protect the lives of three members of the newspaper-Lall, Gildarie, and the newspaper’s editor, Adam Harris.
Nandlall has denied any knowledge of any plot against the newspaper and its staff. He has also stressed that the conversation was a private one with a longtime friend and its contents were taken out of context.
Nandlall’s predicament over the tape seemed to have created a turning point in the various controversies. There has been no further development on the purported email exchanges among Jagdeo, Sattaur and Nandlall.
The withdrawal of the threat complaint by Sattaur came about a month after the disclosure of Nandlall’s conversation with Gildarie. It was though that if Lall could be charged with threatening Sattaur on the basis of an alleged phone call between the two, it would be virtually impossible for Nandlall not to be charged following Lall’s complaint against him. However, sometime later, the DPP controversially ruled that there was no basis for charging Nandlall for the words he had uttered as these were not spoken to the complainant. So far, it is unclear whether Lall will seek to challenge this decision.
