As he had threatened, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has moved to the courts with a $50m libel suit against Su Zhi Rong (also known as Su Zhirong), the Chinese businessman at the centre of bribery allegations against Jagdeo in the VICE News exposé.
In his statement of claim (SoC) Jagdeo is seeking damages in excess of $50,000,000 for what he says were slanderous and defamatory statements Su made against him back in January and earlier this month in a VICE News interview.
He is seeking aggravated and/or exemplary damages, an injunction restraining Su from further publishing or causing to be published other and similar words defamatory to him and court costs.
Following Jagdeo’s threat of legal action, no one can provide information on Su’s current whereabouts. This newspaper understands that he was last seen in Guyana in mid-February.
Jagdeo had in April announced that Su, his tenant and neighbour at his Pradoville 2 home, had seemingly abandoned his place of abode, although he had already paid his rent up to the end of May of this year.
Jagdeo had said that he was looking for the man he had openly claimed to be his friend, to evict him from the rental property and had last month signaled that he would be suing Su for libel.
Calls to Su’s mobile number, the one on which he had spoken to this newspaper when the interview between VICE and Jagdeo was first aired earlier this year, goes immediately to voicemail.
Stabroek News also reached out to the Association of Chinese Enterprises in Guyana, the local Chinese business body, and an executive informed that Su has since resigned from it.
Through his attorney Manoj Narayan, Jagdeo in his SoC said that Su (The Defendant) uttered words against him which would be understood to mean that he is among other things, ‘corrupt, dishonest, receives bribes and kickbacks and lacks integrity to hold public office.’
Jagdeo said that Su was “reckless and indifferent” of the “possibility” and “significant risk” of “the slanderous” statements being recorded and/or repeated or published to others.
Referencing the professional portfolios he has held both locally and internationally and past and present, Jagdeo said that his reputation and character as a “respected public figure” have been seriously injured and his political reputation and standing have been “tarnished and immeasurably damaged.”
Referencing a February 9th public statement in which Su denied the
statements attributed to him, Jagdeo said that there have been numerous public statements from the Parliamentary Opposition and other prominent personalities and civil society groups calling for him (Jagdeo) to be investigated and dismissed from office.
Jagdeo is of the view that unless restrained, Su will continue to defame his character; while noting that he has suffered “public condemnation, humiliation, ridicule and embarrassment.”
Over the past months, Jagdeo has been at the centre of corruption allegations by Su.
Su is said to be a middleman and would allegedly lobby the Vice President on behalf of Chinese investors and companies. He told VICE News’ Isobel Yeung, while she was undercover, that Jagdeo was his boss and “processing fees” had to be paid to him to gain access to lucrative contracts in Guyana.
Jagdeo has vehemently denied these allegations and continues to.
The Vice President said that Su has brought his name into disrepute and globally it could mean that his image will be sullied.
VICE News has released two video reports on the operations of Chinese businessmen in Guyana and their engagement in alleged corruption. Su was prominent in the first report titled ‘Guyana For Sale’ and which examined the operations of Chinese businesses in the country and challenged Vice President Jagdeo on government corruption.
According to the VICE News report, the trail to securing any agreement begins with the notorious ‘middlemen’ and goes all the way to Guyana’s Vice President, Jagdeo. Su advertised himself as the middleman with access to Jagdeo in both video reports.
VICE News engaged Su while Yeung was undercover with a fake potential investor ‘Mr. Chan’. Su whose rented home was next door to Jagdeo’s in Pradoville 2, took the VICE News undercover `businessman’ Mr. Chan to meet the Vice President.
According to VICE, the act was done to prove to the undercover potential Chinese businessman that “he (Su) has access at the highest level”.
Yeung said that Su is not the only person that tells them that the “service fee” middlemen like Su take for bribes are huge amounts, as they showed another interview with a man said to be the General Manager of one of China’s largest construction firms. “The middlemen play a crucial role. With just one word they can get something done,” the General Manager says in Mandarin.
When VICE released an extended version of the initial report earlier this month, it showed footage of a Chinese national confessing to being a money launderer.
