Nalinie Singh, the daughter of former Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) General Manager, Jagnarine Singh was yesterday questioned by ranks of the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) in connection with a huge money-laundering probe.
Sources say that the 27-year-old was subsequently released on bail and investigations are continuing into what is believed to be one of the largest probes of money laundering and conspiracy to defraud the government that the unit has dealt with since its establishment.
Stabroek News understands that SOCU is probing the purchase of a property in 2014 for just under half a million Canadian dollars, the channeling of millions of US dollars though several overseas bank accounts and connections to a Panamanian company, Interbahaia Investments SA, which was granted a lease to operate the government-owned MARDS Rice-Milling Complex located at Burma, Mahaicony in 2004.
Late last year Jagnarine Singh along with agricultural consultant Madanlall Ramraj were slapped with 34 charges for allegedly keeping fraudulent accounts as well as fraudulent appropriation of property.
The duo were initially charged along with an absent former GRDB accountant, Peter Ramcharran, who is presently in Canada.
The charges were withdrawn following a request made by SOCU prosecutor Patrice Henry. The amended charges against only the duo were then read.
In October this year they were freed of 16 of the charges for which they were being tried after Principal Magistrate Judy Latchman found that no case was made out against them.
The matters before Magistrate Latchman alleged that the two men fraudulently took, or applied to their own use and benefit or for any other purpose other than the use of the GRDB, over $9 million, between January 8th, 2010 and January 17th, 2017, at Lots 116 to 117 Cowan Street, Kingston.
