Yuri Garcia-Dominguez and Ateeka Ishmael, the couple accused of operating a major Ponzi scheme that defrauded thousands of Guyanese of hundreds of millions of dollars, have moved to the High Court to get orders to prohibit the police from instituting or continuing the prosecution of criminal charges already instituted against them for fraud.
They also want an order directing the Attorney General (AG) to unfreeze accounts held in the name of Accelerated Capital Firm Inc. (ACFI) at the Bank of Baroda.
Garcia-Dominguez and Ishmael are the Financial Advisor and Trading Operator, and Director, respectively, of ACFI, which is currently under a major fraud investigation being conducted by the Guyana Police Force.
The AG, Commissioner of Police, and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) are all listed as respondents.
Through their attorney, Dexter Todd, Garcia-Dominguez and Ishmael (the applicants) argue that the charges are unlawful, without proper legal grounds and, therefore, constitute an abuse of power.
The jointly-charged duo also want the court to restrain the police from taking complaints from private investors affiliated with their company or reviewing the terns of contracts those investors have with ACFI.
According to the couple, these actions by the police are being done unlawfully.
They also want the AG to be restrained from directing the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU), the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), the Guyana Securities Council, the Central Bank and the police from investigating the dealings with their private investors as they argue, among other things, that it is unlawful and unreasonable.
Garcia-Dominguez and Ishmael are also hoping to be granted any other order the court deems fit and to grant as well as costs.
In their affidavit, the couple said that ACFI’s main business is trading on the international stock market, while noting that the company trades with international brokers IQ Options and FX Choice.
The applicants said that the mode of ACFI’s operation is that investing parties, having entered into a legally binding contract with ACFI, are permitted to invest a certain amount of capital in which either the investing party or ACFI can then deposit the same with the brokers, which would then be traded on the international market.
They said that the investing party subsequently receives 40% to 50% profits on their investments, based on the invested amount and terms of the contract.
The Financial Advisor and Trading Operator and Director said that on behalf of its investors, ACFI can and does monitor the activities of the international trading transactions undertaken by the brokers.
They deposed further that on instructions from ACFI, IQ Options and FX Choice are required to remit profits earned by investors from their investments to ACFI’s Prime Trust Account after which ACFI wires the profit in the Prime Trust Account to its account at Bank of Baroda.
According to the applicants, they make a record of all payment of returns on the investments based on the contracts executed between ACFI and that particular investor.
Garcia-Dominguez and Ishmael said that all contracts were executed between investors and Ishmael in her capacity as Director and not in her personal capacity, while reiterating that at no time were contracts executed in their personal capacity.
Garcia-Dominguez said that by letter of 5th August, he applied to the Guyana Securities Council for a licence for ACFI but it was not granted.
The applicants are contending that none of the virtual complainants ever had any personal interactions with them and did not personally hand over monies to them.
They say that on August 28th, as a result of being incarcerated, ACFI had initiated a repayment plan for investors who had requested a refund of their capital which they had invested in ACFI, but that that process was stymied and subsequently came to a grinding halt since the police were “adamant in unlawfully” pursuing criminal charges against them based on issues which they argue are primarily and solely based in contract law.
The applicants contend that they never entered into contracts in their personal capacities, and that at all material times they acted under the remit of ACFI and on agreed terms and conditions of the contracts with investors.
Garcia-Dominguez and Ishmael are contending that by their actions to seek to interpret terms of contract mutually agreed between the parties, the respondents have acted unlawfully.
They deposed that by letter dated August 25th, the Attorney General had written to their lawyer encouraging them to open a bank account, but that as a follow-up to that letter, a condition for the reopening of the account was that the Crime Chief would have to be allowed to be a signatory to the account.
The applicants said that they rejected this proposal on the basis that an officer of the state ought not to be a signatory of ACFI’s bank account. They said that they have been advised by their lawyer that a company is a separate legal entity apart from its directors, shareholders or other agents.
Against this background they said that they have been further advised that none of the respondents on their own initiative can institute or prosecute charges against them for perceived illegal acts which emanate from contracts entered into by private individuals and ACFI Inc.
Garcia-Dominguez and Ishmael are currently facing over 70 charges of conspiring with other persons to obtain monies by false pretense while operating under the name of ACFI.
The Guyana Police Force has said that Garcia-Dominguez, 34, a naturalised Guyanese of Cuban origin, and his wife, Ishmael, 32, both of Track A, Coldingen, East Coast Demerara, were detained as part of an ongoing investigation of alleged fraud. Approximately 17,000 Guyanese allegedly lost hundreds of millions of dollars after they invested with the unlicensed company run by the couple.
Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum has said that the police have obtained a total of 69 statements from investors, who reached out to the Criminal Investigation Department. These individuals had 77 transactions amounting to $135 million, Blanhum disclosed.
Last Wednesday the police said that a bank account was opened at the beginning of the month in order to facilitate the return of millions of dollars invested by persons but there has been no progress given reported advice received from their lawyer.
