Van West Charles, Falls Gas Station sued over fuel shipment

Mar 27, 2019 News

A city business is suing Dr. Richard Van West Charles and his fuel import company, Atlantic Fuels Inc., for over $20M as a result of a deal that went bad.
South American Ship Breaking and Recycling Inc., based in Lamaha Gardens, in its Statement of Claims filed recently in the courts, named Atlantic Fuel Inc., China Zhonghao Inc. and Van West Charles as joint defendants.
Among other things, South American wanted $18.66M from China Zhonghao and Van West Charles, and almost $2M in damages for breach of contract.

Dr. Richard Van West Charles

China Zhanghao is the operator of Falls Gas Station, Land of Canaan, East Bank Demerara.
Dr. Van West Charles is the current Managing Director of the state-owned Guyana Water Inc.
He is also a principal in Atlantic Fuel Inc., which was controversially granted a licence by the Guyana Energy Agency.
According to the claims, Atlantic Fuel has a fuel import licence with Dr. Van West Charles being the owner.
China Zhonghao is said to own and operate a petroleum service station, on the East Bank of Demerara, and would from time to time import supplies.
South American Ship Breaking and Recycling Inc., said it entered an agreement with the parties in a joint venture arrangement, using the licence of Atlantic Fuel to import fuel. The profits would be split.
Last year, it was agreed that the South American would import 639,000 litres of diesel at US$0.61 per litre. The fuel would be sold to China Zhonghao for $198 per litre. However, South American Ship Breaking and Recycling Inc. claimed that it was robbed.
It was claimed that Atlantic Fuel decided to enter their own arrangement with China Zhonghao and bypassed South American. The price for the shipment came up to $126.5M.
South American said that Atlantic Fuel and Van West Charles refused to refund $12.4M for expenses incurred.
Representing South American is attorney-at-law Timothy Jonas.

The Falls Gas Station at Land of Canaan, East Bank Demerara.

This case stemmed from an ongoing one, which had attracted the attention of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).
During a press conference in early February, GRA’s Commissioner-General Godfrey Statia had disclosed that Atlantic Fuel had been made to pay taxes after questions about the cost of fuel on a shipment.
The GRA had been reportedly investigating cases of under-invoicing, based on Customs documents by Atlantic Fuel.
Van West Charles was summoned to the GRA headquarters after the story broke in Kaieteur News early this year.
GRA would have stumbled on other instances where Customs documents incorrectly processed shipments of fuel as litres instead of gallons, another way in which the state lost tens of millions in taxes.
The attention on the troublesome fuel trade has been making media headlines time and time again because of wrongdoing that has been surfacing.
The fuel import, storage and wholesale licence to Atlantic Fuel was controversially approved in late 2015, around the same time that Van West Charles was hired as the new chief of GWI.
There has been intense scrutiny about the procedures. It emerged that applicants for licences have to show evidence of storage capacity, safety arrangements, environmental permits and a host of other requirements.
At the time of approval, it was unclear whether Atlantic Fuel, a new company, had shown a track record in the fuel business. What is known is that others were applying and not getting through.
Atlantic Fuel received its licence in just over month, a rapid approval compared to the months that others have applied and had to wait.

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