Former Finance Minister Winston Jordan says that he was unaware that the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) had recommended a high-level probe of gold trading in 2019.
During a telephone interview last Monday, Jordan told Stabroek News that he had no knowledge about the recommendation.
He said at no point was it brought to his attention during his tenure as Finance Minister.
“I don’t recall that any such recommendation was made and even if it was made, it didn’t come to me,” Jordan said.
Jordan’s statement will deepen the mystery around the recommendation for the probe of gold trading as the Head of the FIU, Matthew Langevine in a statement on January 6th this year following the publication of a story in Stabroek News said that the news item “appears to be linked to a confidential report shared with a high level committee established in 2019” by Jordan.
Langevine further said that the Committee included very senior representatives from the Bank of Guyana, the Guyana Revenue Authority, the Guyana Gold Board (GCB), the Ministry of Finance and the FIU.
Jordan on Monday, however, explained that while the FIU falls under the Finance Ministry, “a lot” of its reports went to the Attorney General.
As such, Jordan explained that if the recommendation was made, then it probably was forwarded to the Special Organized Crime Unit (SOCU) which comes under the Guyana Police Force.
Basil Williams SC was the Attorney General in 2019 when the recommendation was made. However, when Stabroek News reached out to him two weeks ago he too said that he had no knowledge of the report.
“…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 present Attorney General Anil Nandlall SC also told this newspaper that he is not aware of the recommendation of the report. He said he will update himself 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 had 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.
Jordan told Stabroek News last Monday that sometime while he was Minister of Finance, he was made aware of the issue after “rumours” were circulated that Venezuelan gold was filtering into the local market in causing the Guyana dollar to depreciate.
He said in an effort to address the matter, a meeting was formed. The meeting included officials from the FIU, Bank of Guyana and the Guyana Gold Board. However, Jordan said the “allegations” were never verified since no evidence was ever presented to substantiate the claims. The meeting that Jordan referred to appears to be the same one that Langevine referenced in his statement of January 6th.
The professed lack of knowledge by Williams and Jordan of this key recommendation by the FIU would raise questions about the channels of communication between the agencies in the fight against money laundering and whether the FIU was being taken seriously.
Renewed
There has been renewed interest in the gold trade following the disclosure in Stabroek News that the GCB 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 two weeks ago whether he was aware if any of his recommendations made to senior government officials had been acted upon, FIU Head 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.
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 of the government there was no notable signs 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/CFT) 2009 and its Regulations.
