$29 million fraud at GPL ...Finance Officer tells court Duncan signed off on cheques payable to himself

$29 million fraud at GPL …Finance Officer tells court Duncan signed off on cheques payable to himself

Aug 06, 2016 News

Finance Officer of Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Inc, Loris Nathoo, has confirmed that larceny accused and former Vice Chairman of the company, Carvil Duncan, had signed off on the cheques payable to himself.
Duncan, 73, of Lot 1977 Lanstead Road, Festival City, Georgetown, is accused of conspiring with another to commit simple larceny.
It is alleged that between May 7, and May 8, 2015 at Georgetown, Duncan conspired with another senior official to steal the sum of $27,757,500, property of GPL. It was also alleged that on March 31, 2015, Duncan stole $984,900 belonging to GPL.
Duncan is currently out on $1M bail.
He is on trial in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court before Magistrate Leron Daly. Yesterday, Finance Officer, Nathoo, confirmed that some of the signatures on the cheques belonged to Mr. Duncan. He was at the time responding to questions by Police Prosecutor Shavonne Jupiter.
The GPL official explained that the cheques must be approved by two signatories from the Board of Directors. He told the court that there are two categories of managers on the Board, Class A and Class B. At all times, the Finance Officer explained that the cheques must contain two signatories from either Classes of the board before they are approved.
Questioned further on the issue, the witness essentially told the court that the company has no policy to against officials paying themselves. The matter is set to continue on August 9.
Duncan’s Attorney, Charles Ramson Jr. is scheduled to cross examine Lorraine Bancroft, the Corporate Secretary to GPL’s Board of Directors on that date. On the last occasion, Bancroft told the court that it is the shareholders who are authorized by the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) by-laws to fix remuneration for the power company’s board of directors.
Bancroft, an Attorney by profession, testified that the by-laws of GPL provide for its shareholders to decide on salaries for board members. But that testimony was challenged by Ramson Jr.
The lawyer suggested to Bancroft that the by-laws do not state that shareholders can decide on salary structures for board members.
In a copy of the statute provided to Bancroft by Police Prosecutor, Shellon Jupiter, the Corporate Secretary maintained that it makes such provision and read aloud a section to support her assertion.
Bancroft said that board meetings would be held once per month and explained that special meetings are held when necessary.
According to initial reports, two former senior officials (Duncan and former CEO Aeshwar Deonarine) are accused of being part of a multi-million-dollar fraud at GPL. The men are alleged to have illegally transferred close to $30M to their personal bank accounts from GPL.
The Government had asked the police to investigate the two senior officials last July. It was reported that the men paid themselves almost $29M without authorization.
In light of investigations, Deonarine was sent on administrative leave.
The discoveries of the suspicious transfers were made by independent auditors who were probing the PetroCaribe Fund, which hold proceeds of oil shipments taken from neighbouring Venezuela.
It was while tracking payments to GPL that auditors unearthed the strange transactions. Deonarine, who had been responsible for administration had reportedly wanted to receive the same level of pay as the then DCEO (Technical), Colin Welch, but his approaches to the Board of Directors were rebuffed.
He had reportedly offered to repay the money, but GPL was supposed to have waited until it was transferred from his US bank account. However, police have since issued a warrant for the arrest of Deonarine after he purportedly fled the country.
Deonarine’s name has since been dropped from the charges against Duncan after the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) withdrew the charges against him because he has fled the country.
This was done so that the court could proceed with Duncan’s trial.

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$29 million fraud at GPL …Finance Officer tells court Duncan signed off on cheques payable to himself

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