Carvil Duncan freed of $27M theft charge from GPL

Oct 26, 2018 Court Stories, News

Carvil Duncan

“My client has finally been vindicated in the matter, and he is glad that the court came to the right decision,” said Attorney-at-Law Everton Singh-Lammy, moments after a City Magistrate dismissed a multimillion-dollar theft charge against his client, former Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Director, Carvil Duncan.
Duncan, 75, of Festival City, North Ruimveldt, Georgetown, was on trial before Senior Magistrate Fabayo Azore, accused of stealing $27M from GPL.
The Magistrate before ruling in the matter highlighted a number of elements of the offence which she underscored the police prosecutor failed to prove.
The first issue highlighted by the Magistrate was whether or not simple larceny can be committed on a bank. She further stressed that Duncan was charged with simple larceny, and not misappropriation of funds, which was clear from the facts of the case.
She added that Duncan was charged with simple larceny, which made it tremendously difficult for the Prosecution to prove the essential element of an unlawful act.
She further went on to tell the court that after reviewing the evidence of the company secretary, there was no proven case of misalignment or misplacement of the $27M.
The Magistrate said that the Prosecution was unable to prove that there was an agreement between Duncan and another individual, and that the agreement was to carry out an unlawful act.
She further stressed that the action of Duncan was legal and lawful, because he provided documents with his signature that were taken to the bank.
She said that whether or not Duncan had a right to take the money is a problem for the GPL and not the court.
The State was represented by Police Prosecutor Dominic Bess, while Duncan was represented by Attorneys-at-Law Glen Hanoman and Everton Singh-Lammy.
It was reported that the Government had asked the police to investigate Duncan and other individuals after several discoveries of suspicious transfers were made by independent auditors who were probing the PetroCaribe Fund, which holds proceeds of oil shipments taken from neighbouring Venezuela. It was while tracking payments to GPL that auditors unearthed the abnormal transactions.
It was also reported that the decision was taken to transfer the monies to Duncan and another individual.

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