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Gold dealer money laundering probe widens…GRA seizes luxury Lexus
A Lexus LX 570 SUV belonging to Bartica gold dealer, Saddiqi ‘Bobby’ Rasul, was seized, yesterday, by officials of the Guyana Revenue Authority from a Campbellville auto body shop.
Saddiqi ‘Bobby’ Rasul (inset) Lexus being towed to the GRA warehouse yesterday.
The vehicle was transported on a tow truck to GRA’s Eccles Industrial Site State Warehouse around 16:00hrs. It appeared as though body work was being done on the vehicle since most of it was in matte black and various parts had spots of primer which suggests that the vehicle was about to be repainted.
The average cost for such a vehicle is $20M. This is not the first vehicle seized by GRA. Two Wednesdays ago the tax agency swooped down on Rasul’s Prashad Nagar home shortly after 13:00hrs and seized his tinted Toyota Hilux.
That vehicle is believed to have been imported from Brazil earlier this year but was never declared to Customs. There was no evidence that taxes or duties were paid. The vehicle was found bearing the numbers PKK 1996. However, that vehicle does not appear in GRA’s records.
Further, two days ago, ranks from the Special Organised Crime Unit arrested Rasul. Simultaneous raids were conducted on properties belonging to Rasul and his associates. SOCU had gone to the Lot 25 Sandy Babb Street, Kitty, Georgetown home of Ricardo Fagundes, a close associate of Rasul.
There, ranks presented Tessa Fagundes, sister of Ricardo Fagundes with a search warrant and stated that they were after computers, laptops and phones among other items. The woman said that SOCU’s visit was about the third made to her brother’s residence.
According to the woman, her brother no longer works with Rasul and that SOCU’s constant visits have been frustrating. During the raid, the unit seized three high value sports motorbikes, a Jet Ski and reportedly found a bag with ammunition. The entire family that was at the property at the time was arrested. It is believed that Ricardo Fagundes is currently in custody along with Rasul.
It was also learnt that SOCU had visited Rasul’s Gordon Street, Kitty business place whereby a sport utility vehicle was taken away. Rasul had appeared in court on April 3, 2017 and was placed on $3M bail after he was charged with six counts of fraud. However, those charges were withdrawn and six new charges were instituted.
The gold dealer found himself in hot water after allegedly collecting $956M at the Bartica, Region Seven branch of the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI) based on a number of cheques he deposited; the cheques later bounced.
It has been established that it is protocol that banks would normally hold other banks’ cheques until they are cleared, before making payments against them. However, this procedure was flouted by GBTI officials resulting in one bank official being sacked.
Moreover, Kaieteur News learnt that Rasul visited the Guyana Gold Board (GGB) multiple times per day and those visits should have raised immediate suspicions because they indicated that R. Mining Inc. owned by Rasul was supposedly washing down at its mining operations several times a day.
However, the reality is much different, it is logistically impossible to produce that much gold from the operations of R Mining and have it brought before closing time to Bartica and to the Brickdam office of GGB, insiders say. Yet, R Mining managed to do this over a three-month period – September to November, 2016 without any attention raised.
It was these visits by Rasul at GGB that caused officials from the Ministry of Natural Resources to call in SOCU to investigate if there was collusion between employees of that entity and Rasul.
The Ministry also wants to know if this dealing by Rasul and the GGB was used as an avenue to launder large sums of cash.
Meanwhile, Kaieteur News has learnt that the gold dealer has a security firm in Bartica and a number of gun licenses were issued to that firm. The police have since seized a quantity of weapons belonging to the firm and the gun licenses are being revoked.
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