Two persons were yesterday charged with four counts of forgery stemming from a nearly $30 million wire transfer fraud that targeted the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI).
Anissa Williams and a co-accused were hauled before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan in Georgetown, where they were read the four joint charges, which were indictable.
The charges allege that between March 16, 2021 and March 24, 2021, at Georgetown, they acted in concert to forge documents through wire transfer letters for the sum of over $29 million, purporting to show they were signed by the Chief Executive Officer of GWI Shaik Baksh, knowing same to be false.
They were each placed on $150,000 bail for each charge and told to return to court on August 17.
In May, the Board of Directors of GWI announced that a fraud was perpetrated at a commercial bank and resulted in the debit of GWI’s bank account of nearly $30 million. In a release, the company said that the fraud was discovered by the Finance Department upon reconciling accounts for March 2021. The amounts are $17,489,417 debited on March 16, 2021 and $12,327,515 debited on March 24, 2021.
Upon querying, the bank informed GWI that the amounts represent payments made via wire transfer instructions, payable to two persons (names given) resident in the USA. The addresses of the recipients are 1405 Brooklyn Avenue AF2F Brooklyn Avenue, New York 11210 and 1998 Pacific Street, Brooklyn NY 11216. It has been established that both signatures on the wire transfer instruction letters were forged. GWI said it had never conducted business with these persons or at no time initiated or instructed the bank to carry out the fictitious transactions.
