Dear Editor,
After three years of investigation into a multi-billion-dollar money laundering, tax evasion and racketeering ring, the specialised and elite Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) could only file charges of money laundering against a working class East Bank Demerara family of a mother, father and son. The charges cover some 268 transactions on behalf of Chinese “businesses” in Guyana sending money to some 22 companies in China, reportedly using the official banking system.
This is no small matter. If as is likely, the money came from income hidden from the taxman, it represents about one-third of the total taxes which the GRA collected in 2022 from the self-employed in Guyana!
I shared the newspaper report with a Guyanese colleague in the US who has been involved in the investigation of criminal networks in Florida, some of which succeeded and others which failed. According to him, the charges brought before the court by SOCU have effectively burnt the three year investigation, rendering “every further lead completely useless”.
As he said, the real criminals would already have left Guyana,
taking safe refuge in China. He recounted the story of an undercover agent posing as a postman delivering a package of prohibited substance to an address in Orlando. The focus of that investigation was not the small fry whose address was used but the occupants of the address to which the package was immediately re-delivered.
For three years, SOCU would have had on its radar the Guyanese family used as the front for the real criminals operating in Guyana. No doubt, with appropriate inducement and bargaining, those persons could provide precise information on the Chinese persons in Guyana on whose behalf they were acting. Additionally, SOCU as an arm of the Guyana Police Force has vast powers of investigation and arrest for cause in criminal matters. It could have gone to court for permission to intercept tele-communication between the family and the locally resident Chinese and the beneficiaries in China, and prevent persons from leaving the country, as it did with members of the Guyanese family.
It could have used the several Business Directories in China to determine the bona fides of the recipients in China of the billions shipped out of Guyana, or have a SOCU member as part of our trade missions to China, or utilise our representatives in China, among various other creative opportunities.
After the distant and forgotten Sugate episode, SOCU had the opportunity to nail the real criminals and put an end to the apparent immunity with which Chinese businesses appear to operate in Guyana, whether in natural resources, preferential access to prime land, tax evasion and the procurement of Government permits. We might even have found out those businesses which are extensions of the People’s Republic of China (the State) and those which are genuine, privately owned.
Like Guyana, China subscribes to an internationally acceptable Anti-Money Laundering Regime. The Guyana Financial Intelligence Unit could have sought cooperation and information from its Chinese counterparts. Instead, it is now being suggested that SOCU would seek help through diplomatic channels to obtain information on those companies. For every one Guyanese, there are 2,000 Chinese.
Incredibly, instead of finding and charging the Chinese masterminds, the wife was charged for conspiracy. Are we really serious?
It is disgraceful that a Guyanese family would allegedly conspire with Chinese businesspersons to rob our country and undermine the economy. But many fear too, that our own Government, if not in collusion with, is not sufficiently watchful of what is done in the name of Chinese businesses in Guyana.
Cynics believe that we have been blinded by the lure of no questions asked loans from China to rob the country of its sovereignty and undermine the rule of law. That may turn out to be worse than the case itself.
Yours faithfully,
Christopher Ram
