Hours after Special Organized Crime Unit (SOCU) ranks raided the Kitty home and Regent Street store of a businessman, former attorney general Anil Nandlall yesterday called on government to immediately make public the protocols governing the unit.
“The Minister of Finance speaks about stimulating growth …[which] will never happen in an economy where people are afraid to invest… to show what they own and …keep money and other valuables because they are liable to be invaded by SOCU and their properties are seized,” he told reporters at a press conference.
Nandlall detailed the early morning raid during which he said laptops and iPads belonging to the man’s grandchildren along with business related and confidential documents were seized apparently as part of a money laundering investigation. There are no reports of large sums of money being found at either location.
This revelation comes on the heels of a similar operation which reportedly netted at least $16 million and resulted in the arrest of two persons, who have since been released but SOCU is now seeking the assistance of the High Court as it continues investigating.
Nandlall, who was instrumental in the establishment of SOCU in 2014, did not name the businessman but Stabroek News later learnt that he owns the popular Dhoray’s Shopping Centre located on Regent Street between Camp and Wellington streets.
Stabroek News visited that man’s home last evening but a close female relative declined to offer a comment. This newspaper was told by a source close to the businessman that the family is still traumatized.
When Stabroek News contacted Head of SOCU Assistant Commissioner Sydney James last evening for a comment and additional information, he made a dismissive sound, before abruptly terminating the call. James has been uncooperative in the past when contacted by this newspaper.
According to the Nandlall, the raid began at the businessman’s home around 5.30 am, following which the SOCU ranks descended on the business place were additional searches were conducted.
He said he received information that a contingent of 12 SOCU officers visited the man’s home. “They blocked off the road within the precincts of his house and unleashed themselves into his home. His grandchildren and children were asleep,” Nandlall informed, before adding that the ranks raided the house and took away all the man’s “accounting records and a whole host of private confidential information. They took away his computers. They took away his grandchildren’s iPads and laptop computers under the pretext that they are investigating money laundering.”
Nandlall told reporters that the ranks then moved to the man’s store and “perhaps they are still conducting their search there.” He said the businessman is “a gentleman who has never been accused or charged with any offence. I am his lawyer and I know that.”
During the opening of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) office at the Kingston-based US Embassy, James, surrounded by reporters, declined to provide specifics on the first raid stating that it was engaging the attention of the High Court and as such it would be prejudicial of him to give the media information. He declined to give the specific areas the ranks had targeted. Nandlall, who had expressed concern at the way the unit was operating following a bungled surveillance operation which resulted in the deaths of three persons, told reporters that SOCU is operating under a particular provision of the Anti-Money Laundering Act which “We [the PPP] objected to while we were in government and we warned the opposition not to pursue the course to insert that in the legislation; that is the power that is given to police officers and customs officers to enter into people’s home and to seize and to confiscate therefrom sums of money which includes jewellery [over US$10,000].”
There have already been two jewellery seizures at the airport. One of the affected persons, a goldsmith and frequent flyer to the US has since filed a multi-million-dollar lawsuit against SOCU.
According to Nandlall, the then government had said that under the requirement this was a condition that must only apply at ports of entry and exit and that it was not a Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendation that the provision must apply throughout the country.
“They rejected our proposals and they have inserted it,” he stressed adding in arguments the party had said that the provision will be abused and misused.
“From all the evidence that is being unearthed it is clear that our predictions and our apprehensions are being borne out. This provision in the law is being used as a weapon against the people of this country,” he said.
Nandlall used the occasion to call on Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan to make the protocols of SOCU public immediately. Ramjattan had informed the National Assembly during budget debates last week that the six pages which make up the protocols for the unit have been “drafted’ and will be made public.
Ramjattan explained to the House that the unit which was created by Rohee in 2013, when he was minister of home affairs, never had operational protocols but steps have now been taken to bring its operations in line with the standard operating procedures of the Guyana Police Force.
Nandlall said yesterday that additionally the party also calls for a “repeal of that provision of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Act which is being abused by SOCU.”
He reiterated that SOCU was supposed to function as the enforcement arm of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and its members were supposed to have police powers because “it was necessary as part of their investigating apparatus.”
SOCU, he said, based on what has been revealed in the National Assembly is now situated under the Ministry of Presidency. He said that this ministry, as the “premier executive arm of the state, has no business constitutionally, legally or democratically with the business of investigation. That is not part of executive functions of government.”
Nandlall said that the party demands the immediate removal of SOCU from under that office. If it remains under the auspices and command of that office, he said, the party will continue to contend that it is operating under political directions because that is the impression that the general public has.
He said a law enforcement agency of the state must always remain independent from the political directorate or it “will be used for political purposes.”
It was following questions from opposition member Juan Edghill that Minister of State Joseph Harmon during consideration of estimated for Ministry of Presidency that $40 million had been set aside for the entity.
Edghill questioned why, if SOCU falls under the police force, the allocation was placed under the Ministry of the Presidency. Describing it as one of the “holdover arrangements” from the PPP/C administration, Harmon explained that it falls under that ministry but the intention is place it under the Guyana Police Force. “This is basically trying to phase it into its full role under the Guyana Police Force,” he said.
