The principals of accused Ponzi business, Accelerated Capital Firm Inc (ACFI) are expected to meet with representatives of the various agencies involved in the investigation early next week with the hope of clearing the way for the repayment of clients.
This was confirmed by their attorney Dexter Todd, who when contacted for an update yesterday told Stabroek News that the agencies have all since responded to the firm’s request and have agreed to “coordinate things together”.
The meeting is expected to be held either next Monday or Tuesday, Todd said.
ACFI, in a press release issued on Friday had said that they had informed their lawyers to write to the heads of the various agencies involved in the investigation seeking a meeting on the way forward.
The firm had noted that it believes that the matter can be resolved in a “very positive and amicable” way which will see the return of all the capital investments to its clients.
In the statement, ACFI also apologized for the delay in the repayment process which it said is not without justification since they are doing “everything legally possible” to ensure repayment is done in the “shortest possible time”.
Yuri Garcia Dominguez and his wife, Ateeka Ishmael are currently facing a series of charges.
In August, the police had arrested the couple after they had launched an investigation into what is being described as a huge Ponzi scheme.
The Guyana Police Force has said that 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.
To date, the principals are facing close to 80 charges of conspiring with other persons to obtain monies by false pretence. They were released on bail totalling approximately $30 million.
At a press conference held in early October, Dominguez had announced plans to recommence repayment of invested capital to 17,000 clients from October 12th since the firm is not licensed to operate here and has been forced to cease all of its operations.
The repayment did commence as promised with some 27 persons receiving their invested capital.
However, two days after the repayment started, officials from SOCU raided the couple’s property at Coldingen, ECD and seized equipment containing records of their clients. This resulted in a halt of the repayment.
In mid-October, the couple faced two additional charges which were filed by SOCU.
They were charged under the Consumers Affairs Act with operating a pyramid scheme, and under the Securities Act with operating without a licence.
Both Dominguez and Ishmael pleaded not guilty to the joint charges and were released on bail.
In a recent update, Todd had told this newspaper that persons who invested with ACFI are at risk of losing their money as the companies which piloted the trading of the funds have since terminated their contracts with the firm.
“Mr (Yuri ) Dominguez (of ACFI) would have had held accounts with Prime Trust and CoinZoom. These are holding companies for the bitcoins. Now because of the investigation……the effect of what they did is that both holding companies have now severed their agreements with Mr Dominguez. So they will not allow any business in terms of converting the bitcoins through them to facilitate the monies coming back to Guyana,” Todd had explained.
As such, Todd said repayment of the clients has become “impossible”.
“What I proposed to my client is that I will write the Attorney General, I will write the head of (the) Financial Intelligence Unit, the SOCU head and the Crime Chief and to see whether we can get a meeting and come up with a possible resolution,” the attorney said while noting, “so really and truly without the agencies coming together to see how they can really solve this, I don’t see how the people are going to be able to get back their money.”
