The current and former Attorneys General say they are unaware of the Financial Intelligence Unit’s (FIU) recommendation for a high-level probe of gold trading which was made in 2019.
Attorney General Anil Nandlall yesterday told Stabroek News that he will update himself on the recommendations of the report with the aim of implementation.
“I will have to update myself with the recommendations and examine them with a view of implementation after discussing with the various sectors and the various organizations whose input maybe necessary,” Nandlall said.
However, his predecessor Basil Williams, in an invited comment yesterday told this newspaper that he has no knowledge of the report even though he was the Attorney General at the time.
“…I haven’t seen a report…..As Chairman of the CFATF (Caribbean Financial Action Task Force) and as Chairman of our AML/CFT (Anti-Money Laundering and Countering of Financing for Terrorism programme, I don’t know of an FIU report,” Williams said.
The FIU had recommended in 2019 that a high-level team be established to conduct a comprehensive review of the trading of gold, amid concerns that Venezuelan gold was filtering into the local market in 2019 causing the Guyana dollar to depreciate.
There has been renewed interest in the gold trade following the disclosure in Stabroek News that the Guyana Gold Board (GGB) is currently investigating allegations made to the Minerals Grievance Platform (MGP) that local large-scale gold trader, El Dorado Trading is connected to illegally sourced Venezuelan gold, a claim the company has denied vehemently.
Following the allegation, the Royal Canadian Mint (RCM) has suspended the intake of El Dorado gold from the GGB until further notice.
When questioned on Wednesday whether he was aware if any of his recommendations made to senior government officials had been acted upon, FIU Head Matthew Langevine told Stabroek News not to his knowledge.
“The FIU would have made the recommendations….A lot of them you would see probably had not been acted on as yet but that aspect of it is outside of the purview of the FIU. To my knowledge it doesn’t appear so,” Langevine said.
The FIU report in the second half of 2019 had also urged that action be taken against illegal cambios.
The FIU report, which was seen by Stabroek News was one of several which were presented before the final draft, Langevine said.
In the second half of 2019 the FIU set about to determine whether there was information to support the assumptions that USD traded through the illegal roadside cambios and even legitimate cambios were being used to support illegal gold trade between Guyana and Venezuela during the period January 2018 – July 2019.
The cambio operations specifically reviewed in the analysis included Confidential Cambio (Mohamed’s Enterprise), El Dorado Trading (Tameshwar Jagmohan) and L. Mahabeer & Son Cambio (Latchman “Latchoo” Mahabeer).
The FIU also sought to determine whether the elevated exchange rate for USD was being influenced by businesses involved in the gold trade/export.
The FIU then posited a number of questions and recommended that “a high-level team be established to complete a more comprehensive review of the gold trading and Foreign Exchange trading markets to better understand its inner workings and implications. Action needs to be taken at addressing the issue of illegal Cambios including `roadside cambios’”.
The FIU also contended that the Central Bank should review the appropriateness of gold dealers/ traders being approved to operate licensed cambios.
The FIU recommended that the Central Bank and Law Enforcement should become “more proactively involved in addressing the various issues including undertaking of undercover operations to ensure all completed transactions are being declared/ reported by Licensed Cambios”.
When the APNU+AFC government had entered office in 2015 leading members had spoken openly about large volumes of gold being smuggled out of the country. Over the five-year term there was no notable sign of efforts to stamp this out.
In November 2012, US$11.5 million in smuggled gold from Guyana was stolen from a Guyanese fishing boat – Summer Bliss in Curaçao.
The FIU is an autonomous body responsible for requesting, receiving, analyzing and disseminating suspicious transaction reports and other information relating to money laundering, terrorist financing or the proceeds of crime. It was established under the Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Act (AML/CFTA) 2009 and its Regulations.
