Dorwain Bess, the businessman who is linked to an alleged plot to extort a city businessman Afras Mohammed, was yesterday charged and placed on bail, while the Guyana Police Force (GPF) issued a wanted bulletin for overseas-based Guyanese Rickford Burke in relation to the same crime.
Bess, 45, of Bel-Air Park, Georgetown was charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit a felony contrary to Section 33 of the Criminal Law (Offences) Act.
He denied the charges which was read to him by Magistrate Fabayo Azore at the Vigilance Magistrate’s Court
Bail was granted in the sum of $200,000 with the condition that he lodge his passport. Bess is also required to report to the Officer-in-Charge of the Major Crime Unit every Friday, commencing today.
The matter was adjourn-ed until November 1 for report.
Bess was arrested on Monday, hours after a wanted bulletin was issued for him.
He is the third suspect to be charged in relation to the crime. On Tuesday, two reporters, Gary Eleazer and Alex Wayne, faced two joint charges of conspiracy to commit a felony. They, too, were released on $200,000 bail each.
As the police investigation continues, the GPF last night issued a wanted bulletin for Burke.
In the bulletin, the police said that Burke, whose last known address is Brooklyn, New York and Bartica, is wanted for questioning in relation to conspiracy to commit a felony, to with publication of defamatory libel in order to extort money.
The crime was committed on Saturday, August 27, 2022, the police said.
Anyone with information about the whereabouts of Burke is asked to contact the police on 225-6940, 225-8196, 226-7476, 225-2317, 227-1149 or the nearest police station.
Eleazer and Wayne are accused of conspiring together and with other persons to publish defamatory libel against Mohammed with a view to extort the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($150,000) from him at Lusignan, East Coast Demerara (ECD).
It is also alleged that the two men between the same dates and at the same location, conspired together and with other persons to offer to abstain from publishing defamatory libel against Mohammed with a view to extort the sum of $150,000 from him.
The police, in a statement, had previously said that an interview was conducted with Eleazar and he was told of the allegation of him trying to extort $1 million from the businessman in order to remove a news article from the Facebook page and website of the Guyana News Network (GNN).
According to the police, Eleazer said that he was contacted by Bess, who told him that Mohammed was evading taxes on imported vehicles and as a result he (Eleazer) wrote an article and sent it to Bess.
The police added that Eleazer claimed that Bess then sent the article to Burke and several paragraphs were added and the article was subsequently uploaded on the GNN Facebook page and website.
It was said that Eleazer further alleged that Bess told him that the article in question was to threaten Mohammed due to the fact that Bess had lost $100 million while he and Mohammed were in business together.
Burke, of the New-York based Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID), has since called the police claims “falsehoods and wild conjectures” which he said are intended to slander him. “I live in New York. The people being coerced by the police to speculate about me, live in Guyana. They have never been in my presence. I have never seen them in my life. None of them had ever spoken to me about an article about a businessman evading taxes. One I have never heard of before!” he had said in a statement on Monday.
