Attorney General Anil Nandlall says the government remains willing and prepared to do “everything lawfully possible” to ensure that persons who invested with suspected Ponzi scheme operator, Accelerated Capital Firm Inc (ACFI), are refunded their money.
During a telephone interview with Stabroek News on Thursday, Nandlall said that to date, a number of facilities have been extended to the principals of the company, Ateeka Ishmael and Yuri Garcia-Dominguez upon their request and based on a promise that repayment of funds will begin.
However, he said “none of these facilities extended thus far bore any fruits”.
The Attorney General explained that on Wednesday he met with two attorneys representing the firm, who made “certain requests” of the government in an effort to resolve the issue.
However, he said he asked that the requests be documented, signed and returned to him.
“We continue to remain willing and ready to assist in whatever way we can. The last expression of our preparedness to work with the company manifested itself in a meeting with two lawyers representing the company. They made certain requests of the government, I asked them to go back to their clients, ensure that that is exactly what they want and for them to put it in writing, read it to him (Dominguez), ensure he understands and agrees that that is what he requires the Government to do and I will review it,” Nandlall explained.
He further related that all of the reimbursement information supplied by ACFI thus far to the police was investigated by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and the Central Bank of Guyana and it has all “turned out to be false”.
“This includes information relating to bank accounts in various countries and in relation to companies operating in the US and elsewhere. The bank account were found to be non-existent and the companies bore no relationship with this company,” Nandlall noted.
Nevertheless, he said the government is still hopeful that the monies will return here and persons who invested with the company will be refunded.
In a press release issued last week Friday, ACFI had said that it 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 apologised for the delay in the repayment process which it said is not without justification since it is doing “everything legally possible” to ensure repayment is done in the “shortest possible time”.
Dominguez and his wife, 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 had said that Dominguez, 34, a naturalised Guyanese of Cuban origin, and, 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 Special Organised Crime Unit raided the couple’s property at Coldingen and seized equipment containing records of their clients. This resulted in a halt of the repayment.
