Local police are seeking the help of their overseas counterparts to arrest and extradite former Deputy CEO of the Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL) Aeshwar Deonarine, who was charged as party to a multi-million theft from the company last month.
Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum did not want to reveal Deonarine’s whereabouts but Stabroek News had previously learnt that he is hiding in Canada.
“We have already informed our overseas law enforcement counterparts. I am in constant communication with them and we have already expressed an interest in having him being apprehended and returned to Guyana so that he can be brought to justice and face those charges which were instituted against him by the police,” Blanhum said on Thursday.
Deonarine failed to appear in court in January, when Carvil Duncan, President of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG) and a former member of GPL’s Board, was charged with stealing almost $1 million and conspiring to steal over $27 million from the GPL.
As a result, an arrest warrant was issued by the court for Deonarine. During the proceedings, it was alleged that Deonarine left Guyana on August 3, 2015 for Canada.
Duncan, 73, of 1977 Williamstaad Street, Festival City, Georgetown, was charged with stealing $984,900, which was the property of GPL on March 31, 2015, at Georgetown.
He was also charged with conspiring with Deonarine to steal $984,900 from GPL on the same day, and conspiring with Deonarine to steal the sum of $27,757,500, also property of GPL Inc, between May 7 and May 8, 2015.
He was not required to plead to the charges, which were indictable, and was placed on $1 million bail.
The charges stem from payments that were made by Deonarine and Duncan to themselves and which were uncovered by a forensic audit that was commissioned after the APNU+AFC government entered office last year. The money allegedly stolen by Duncan represents retroactive payments for his time on the GPL Board.
The police have already contacted the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) for assistance in locating Deonarine.
