Two reporters are currently in police custody and are being questioned following allegations of extortion by a city businessman.
It is alleged that the reporters, Alex Wayne and Gary Eleazar, attempted to extort $1 million from a businessman to remove a news item published on the Guyana News Network (GNN) Facebook page.
The investigation into the alleged crime began on Friday.
Police in a statement last night informed that during an interview with Eleazar, he said he was contacted by a businessman, Dorwain Bess, who accused another city businessman of evading taxes on imported vehicles.
Eleazar told police that he subsequently wrote the article and sent it to Bess. He claimed that Bess shared the article with Rickford Burke, an overseas-based Guyanese, who manages the GNN page. According to Eleazar several paragraphs were added and the article was posted to the page.
Even as police questioned Wayne and Eleazar with regard to extortion, they are yet to provide particulars on the alleged crime and what transpired.
However, the statement from police issued last evening said Bess had told Eleazar that the article was to threaten the vehicle importer because he (Bess) had lost $100 million while they were in business.
Additionally, police said from questioning Eleazar, he admitted to managing the GNN site and uploading articles. He claimed he uploaded about five articles to the site and wrote articles targeting Guyana Energy Agency (GEA), Anand Sanasie, and Global Petroleum among others.
No other information was released by the police.
