Yuri Garcia Dominguez and Ateeka Ishmael, the principals of Accelerated Capital Firm Inc (ACFI), are continuing to reimburse persons who were allegedly defrauded by the firm, their attorney Dexter Todd yesterday told a City Magistrate.
During yesterday’s court proceedings in George-town, Todd, who appeared via Zoom, told Principal Magistrate Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus that as promised a list of names has been submitted to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to verify how many persons were paid from the list. He said that this is still in process.
Further, he said that of the 18 matters before Magistrate Isaacs-Marcus, about four or five of the complainants have been completely settled with. The matter will continue before the Magistrate on July 30, when another update on the repayment process will be disclosed to the court.
Dominguez, 34, a naturalised Guyanese of Cuban origin, and his wife, Ishmael, 32, both of Track A, Coldingen, East Coast Demerara, are currently facing close to 80 charges in what has been described as a huge Ponzi scheme. They were released on bail amounting to about $30 million.
The charges against the couple were laid separately before different magistrates. In August 2020, Magistrate Melissa Mittelholzer, attached to the Vigilance Magistrate’s Court, had granted the two defendants bail in the sum of $3,900,000 each on 13 of the charges, while Magistrate Alisha George at the Sparendaam Magis-trate’s Court, had refused to release them on bail for six other charges.
Then in September, 2020, they appeared before several magistrates and faced a number of new charges. At the George-town Magistrates’ Courts, they were read 10 additional charges of conspiracy to commit a felony and they secured bail in the sum of $1, 000,000 each. Magis-trate Fabayo Azore, at the Vigilance Magistrate’s Court, had also granted them bail in the sum of $300,000 on each of the 12 charges she had read to them. They were then slapped with 11 more charges when the couple was arraigned before Magistrate Dylon Bess in the city again. They were placed on $4.4 million bail for the 11 charges, $200,000 for each charge.
Then 14 additional charges were read to them when they appeared before Magistrate Azore at the Vigilance Magistrate’s Court, where the charges of conspiring with other persons to obtain monies by false pretense were read to them. It is alleged that they obtained a total of $9 million from the 14 victims. They had been placed on bail in the sum of $800,000 each.
Another seven charges were brought against them when they had appeared before Magistrate Isaacs-Marcus. The charges were conspiring with other persons to obtain a total of $7 million dollars by false pretense, from seven victims. They were each granted bail in the sum of $300,000 on each charge or $2.1 million in total. They were again charged in October with two new charges, including operated a pyramid scheme. The charges were read to the couple when they appeared before Magistrate Azore at the Vigilance Magistrate’s Court.
Altogether, they have been accused of operating a Ponzi scheme with approximately 17,000 Guyanese having lost hundreds of millions of dollars after investing with the unlicensed company. In February, this newspaper reported that persons who invested with the firm had begun to receive their monies. This was after the repayment had commenced late last year, with some 27 persons receiving their invested capital. However, two days after the repayment started, officials from the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) raided the couple’s property at Coldingen and seized equipment containing records of their clients. This resulted in a halt of the repayment.
