Principals of alleged Ponzi scheme, Accelerated Capital Firm Inc (ACFI) Yuri Garcia-Dominguez and Ateeka Ishmael have since embarked on a process of putting their trading account back into profitability and once this is completed, repayment is expected to commence early this year.
This is according to attorney Dexter Todd, who when contacted for an update last w eek told Stabroek News that the option is one which Dominguez ‘inherited’ after he was released from prison.
He said Dominguez has since asked for a period of six weeks to complete the process. After this, Todd said a ‘considerable’ amount of clients would receive their invested capital by January month end.
“…The client was asking for couple weeks because he needed to work the trade, in the sense bringing down some of the losses and putting back the trading account into profitability. Something that he inherited after he came out of the prison,” Todd said.
According to Todd, the system which was recommended by Dominguez is ‘working’ and the time period requested is going ‘successful’ so far.
“…..There is a one hundred percent chance that the accounts will be in profitability enough by the end of January for persons to start receiving their money,” Todd said.
“……So I believe that by January month end, I believe a considerable amount of people would receive their monies because at that time I think, the accounts would be in a place of profitability and he can safely close the trade,” he added.
According to Todd, he met with Dominguez on Tuesday, who gave him a ‘positive’ sign.
“….That the system is working and he is seeing the margin loss, its coming down…..You see once he closes the trade and just bring back everybody’s money then he doesn’t have to pay this high penalty of 68.5 percent of the loss from the capital investment. That is something that he is attempting to get sorted out. What he is doing is basically trading, rectifying the problem in the meanwhile bringing down the loss and putting back the accounts into profitability,” Todd explained.
Todd further noted that repayment will be done in batches of five thousand every three weeks.
In this way, he said by March, 2021, all 17,000 persons who invested with the firm will be repaid.
The principals of the company, who are married, 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 totaling 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 November, 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.
