The Government of Guyana has written to the United States Department of Justice for information it said it needs on the sanctions placed on businessmen Nazar Mohamed, his son Azruddin, and Permanent Secretary Mae Toussaint Jr Thomas.
“As promised last week, I dispatched under my hand, as advised by the US Department of Justice, the requisite requests for information, statements, evidence, depositions, documents, or other exhibits relating to the publication by the US Treasury in respect of the sanctions imposed on Nazar Mohamed, Azruddin Mohamed, Mohamed Enterprise and Mae Thomas, as well as the designated entities of Hadi’s World, and Team Mohamed Racing Team,” Attorney General Anil Nandlall SC on Tuesday informed, during his weekly ‘Issues in the News’ programme aired on his Facebook handle.
“As you are aware, it is being alleged that these persons are accused… of committing a number of criminal offences in Guyana [and] the Government of Guyana has already made it very clear that these grave allegations of criminal conduct will be thoroughly investigated by the relevant law enforcement agencies of the state,” he added.
Nandlall said that the request was made under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties (MLAT). “In this regard, we have requested the information and the evidence et cetera that are in the possession of the American authorities, and we did so under the relevant treaties.”
Last month, government was advised by Washington that information being sought on sanctions against gold dealers, Nazar Mohamed and Azruddin Mohamed, and Permanent Secretary Mae Toussaint Jr Thomas, would have to be sourced via the Department of Justice (DoJ).
Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh, had issued a statement saying that in the matter of the Guyana Government’s request for relevant information concerning the sanctions against “certain Guyanese individuals and entities,” it was told to direct such requests from the office of Guyana’s Attorney General to the US Department of Justice, which will then work with the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to gather source documentation on the matter.
The Ministry of Finance (MoF) also informed that it was advised that while this could be a long process, it should be aided by the fact that both Guyana and the US are signatories to the Inter-American Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance. Further, additional information was also shared with Guyana on the mutual legal assistance process.
The government has stated that it will now submit the request following the process advised.
The release recalled that immediately following the actions taken on June 11 by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) within the United States Department of the Treasury to sanction certain Guyanese individuals and entities, the Government of Guyana wrote the US authorities requesting relevant information to be shared with Guyana to facilitate its own investigation of the matters concerned.
According to the release, these requests for information were sent by Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance and the Public Service, and also by the Commissioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority, to the US Department of the Treasury, under the ambit of the Tax Information Exchange Agreement between Guyana and the US. It also informed that the Government of Guyana has remained in close contact with the US authorities since.
The government also stated that it will continue to pursue, through the appropriate channel, the obtaining of relevant information covered by the Tax Information Exchange Agreement. This Agreement, it explained, provides for the exchange of information to administer and enforce laws concerning the taxes specified therein, to assure the accurate assessment and collection of taxes to prevent fiscal fraud and evasion, and to develop improved information sources for tax matters.
And in addition to the mutual legal assistance process, the government expects that the arrangements in place for exchange of tax information and cooperation between tax authorities will provide a means through which relevant information can be shared on matters of this nature in a timely and effective manner.
“We will continue to work closely with all our US counterparts in order to advance this matter in the most thorough and expeditious manner possible,” the release added.
Nandlall said that now that the processes advised to be used has been utilized, Guyana is “awaiting the information requested.”
