Former Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) accountant Peter Ramcharran was yesterday ordered to serve a three-year sentence after he was found guilty of omitting $145 million from the entity’s ledger in 2015.
Ramcharran was on trial before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan in Georgetown on the charge that while being the accountant of the GRDB in Kingston, he omitted to enter $145 million in the GRDB ledger during the year 2015.
Ramcharran, who had pleaded not guilty, was called upon to lead his defence last year after the court ruled that a case was made out against him. Ramcharran, who was then represented by attorney Sase Gunraj, opted to call witnesses to testify on his behalf.
However, only one witness, Leslie Veerasammy, who was the managing partner of the company that conducted an audit in 2016, testified. Meanwhile, Gunraj removed himself from the case during the same period and attorney Nigel Hughes took over. Following the conclusion of Veerasammy’s testimony, the defence closed their case and the Chief Magistrate adjourned the matter to examine the evidence.
During yesterday’s court proceedings, the Chief Magistrate told the defence that having examined the evidence in its entirety, the court found Ramcharran guilty as charged. She noted that the evidence provided was not challenged by the defence and the evidence by the witnesses led by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) Patrice Henry was satisfactory and proved without reasonable doubt that Ramcharran acted dishonestly and he willfully failed to record the monies in the ledger.
Further, the magistrate stated that the court disbelieved Veerasammy’s testimony and was of the view that he attempted to deceive the court by trying to retract evidence that was presented by the company in 2016 and denying it during his testimony this year. As a result, she said, the court found that the account was operated by Ramcharran for his own purpose.
In his plea of mitigation, Hughes stated that there was no financial loss for the state or GRDB as it was an error that resulted in no financial loss. He added that his client has an unblemished record and asked that a modest sentence be handed down.
Before sentencing Ramcharran, the Chief Magistrate stated that she took into consideration the prevalence and the seriousness of the offence in addition to the fact that Ramcharran evaded the police for almost two years.
She subsequently sentenced him to three years in jail.
In relation to the falsification of accounts Ramcharran has four remaining charges before the court that are currently being dealt with by the Chief Magistrate. The charges alleged that while being the accountant of the GRDB, he omitted to enter a total in excess of $269 million in the GRDB ledger.
Ramcharran is also facing 17 charges which allege that as a member of the GRDB, at Lot 116 to 117 Cowan Street, Kingston, he omitted or concurred in omitting from the organisation’s general ledger, entries related to a total of over $7 million in various periods between January 11th, 2010 and July 17th, 2012.
Sixteen other charges allege that Ramcharran, former GRDB General Manager Jagnarine Singh and Agricultural Consultant Madanlall Ramraj fraudulently took or applied to their own use and benefit, or for any other purpose other than the use of GRDB, over $5.1 million, between January 8th, 2010 and January 17th, 2017.
These charges were laid against the accused after he was extradited from Canada almost a year ago.
