Bank of Baroda (Guyana) Inc. has threatened to suspend business relations with Guiana Holdings Inc. if a licence for its Superbet operations is not produced by month end and according to the company’s attorney Anil Nandlall court action will be filed against the Gaming Authority to protect his client from what he said was “ongoing victimization”.
The bank, by way of letter yesterday informed the company’s Operations Manager Shrikant Kisoensingh that the Business Licence for the year 2018 and 2019 is necessary to complete the Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) which is mandated by law. The last licence the company obtained expired on December 31, 2017.
“Please note that the submission of this document is essential for our continued relationship with you. If we do not receive your Business Licence by 31.05.2019 all operations in the account will be suspended until submission of the said licence,” the letter said.
This development comes days after Stabroek News reported that Kisoensingh was questioned by the police about the legality of his business. Nandlall had also chronicled the difficulties the Surinamese national was facing in obtaining a certificate of good standing from the Gaming Authority. The inability to get that is preventing the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) from issuing the licence.
Nandlall yesterday maintained that his client is being victimized and said that state agencies are being used to pressure his client out of business. “Eventually I will have to disclose who are connected in these state agencies with my client’s competitors and what those relationships are so that the picture will become crystal clear,” he warned.
Given that the deadline set by the bank is just over a week away, the attorney told Stabroek News that he intends to write the bank to ask for an extension of time to comply while he challenges this requirement for a good standing certificate. “As I indicated earlier the GRA has informed me that they have no problem with my client …to issue the licence but it is the Gaming Authority that has requested the GRA not to do so until they issue the good standing certificate and they are not issuing it,” he said
Nandlall stressed that at this point he has no alternative but to move to the court to “protect my client’s business.”
Further, he stressed “it is unfortunate that this adverse climate is created, which is injurious to investment. My client pays $10M in taxes monthly and employs over 500 Guyanese indirectly and directly.”
Speaking to the media last Friday, Kisoensingh related that he was at his office when he received a telephone call informing him that he needed to be at CID Headquarters for 12 pm for a meeting with the Deputy Crime Chief. He was also instructed to take along all relevant documents so as to determine whether he is operating legally.
The questioning of Kisoensingh came on the heels of a public statement from the Attorney General’s Chambers that the betting service is operating here without a licence and a warning from the Gaming Authority that it cannot lawfully operate without a Revenue Licence issued by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).
The company, which is headquartered in Suriname, is being operated by Guiana Holdings Inc, a subsidiary of its parent company, the Pasha Gaming Group. In addition to Guyana and Suriname, the company also has operations in Uganda, Cyprus and Belgium. The company started its operation in Guyana in 2012.
Nandlall who was present charged that ministerial interference is responsible for the hiccups the company is experiencing, a claim that was strongly denied by Chairman of the Gaming Authority, Roysdale Forde.
“I am not aware of the basis of the claim,” Forde told Stabroek News when contacted. He added that he would happy if he is provided with further details.
In providing a background to the issues facing Superbet, Nandlall explained that in 2017, a problem developed as the Gaming Authority “attempted to exercise control” over the operations of Superbet, purportedly acting under the Anti-Money Laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Act. He said that at that time, he indicated to the Authority that it had no such power or authority under the laws and that the operations of Superbet fell under the purview of the GRA. He said that this matter made it to court and the court agreed that the GRA not the Authority had control over Superbet.
“The court ruled in our favour and subsequently, the law was amended to allow the Gaming Authority to exercise supervisory control over the operations of my client. When that happened, the GRA told us that they can no longer sell us (a) licence, that is at the end of 2017, until we get what they described as a certificate of good standing from the Guyana Gaming Authority,” he said.
When the company requested the certificate, the Authority indicated that a number of requirements had to be met first. However on satisfying that, it is claimed that the Authority indicated that an AML/CFT audit needed to be done before the certificate is issued. The company is currently in the process of recruiting a foreign company to do the audit as it cannot be done locally.
Forde is adamant that the Authority is operating above board.
He said that the requiring of the certificate is to ensure from an AML perspective that credible entities operate. The Authority, he said, informed Guiana Holdings that because of certain reasons, which they are aware of, that there was need to have an AML audit done. They agreed to this in writing, he added.
