Dear Editor,
It is with considerable concern one reads that US Representative Gregory Meeks may soon be visiting Guyana. The purpose of his visit is not clear save to say that it comes at a time close to elections when any perception of foreign interference must be avoided.
Meeks is the representative for the 5th Congressional District of New York, which encompasses many Indo-Guyanese neighbourhoods in Queens. He has in the past had close contacts to disgraced PPP financier and Liberty Avenue realtor Ed Ahmad, who was convicted and sentenced to two years for overseeing a US$50 million fraud scheme that allowed ineligible Guyanese and others to own homes. Many of them ended up facing financial ruin.
In 2007, Ahmad gave Meeks an unsecured $40,000 loan which Meeks failed to declare on his annual financial disclosure reports for more than two years. Meeks has a reputation of living a lavish lifestyle as the New York Times reported in 2010 (Congressman Cries Poor, but Lifestyle May Disagree), staying at five star hotels and taking private jets. Most troubling was his purchase of a home in Queens built for him by a real estate developer that the Times reported he paid only $830k for – way below the market price.
The Times reported that “in early 2008, Mr Meeks agreed to pay fines totaling $63,000 after the Federal Election Commission found that in 2003 and 2004, he used campaign funds for personal expenses, including $6,200 on a personal trainer and $9,800 to lease and repair a vehicle that Mr Meeks could not demonstrate was used for any campaign work.”
As we know, Ed Ahmad is close friends with Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo for whom he shipped three containers of hardware to build the latter’s Pradoville mansion. Coincidentally, Ahmad was sold 17 acres of land, well below market price, at Leonora that originally he stated was to build a wood factory but, thanks to a dubious court ruling by the late Ian Chang, he turned into real estate development Hollywood Gardens that is now bush.
Meanwhile, this year, Meeks issued – quite unbidden – two press statements on Guyana in the wake of the no-confidence motion calling for democracy to prevail, etc.
US Congressman Meeks has no business in Guyana at this time and the government should be on its guard against such foreign actors.
Yours faithfully,
Albert Russell
