Latest update August 14th, 2026 10:25 AM
Sep 27, 2019 News
A notice was prepared to be sent to Special Prosecutor Lawrence Harris following his no-show yesterday for the trial concerning the six former high-ranking officials of the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB).
These officials were slapped with fraud-related charges and placed on $500,000 bail each for failing to make a proper entry into a register of a company with the intent to defraud $362M from the entity’s Republic Bank account. GRDB is the authority charged with overseeing the rice industry throughout the country.
The six officials charged are former General Manager of the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) Jagnarine Singh; former Deputy General Manager Madanlall Ramraj; General Secretary of the Producers Association (RPA), Dharamkumar Seeraj; former Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Amerindian Affairs, Nigel Dharamlall; former General Manager of the Guyana Oil Company Badrie Persaud and the Deputy Permanent Secretary Finance Ministry of Agriculture, Prema Roopnarine.
Attorneys Glenn Hanoman, Anil Nandlall and Sase Gunraj are representing the defendants.
The charges alleged that between January 1 and December 31, 2012, with intent to defraud, they omitted or concurred to be omitted $77.3M from the general ledger of the GRDB’s Republic Bank account.
Similarly, between January 1 and December 31 of the years 2013, 2014 and 2015 with intent to defraud the entity, they omitted or concurred to be omitted from the said Republic Bank account, $9.7M, $130M and $145M for the three respective years.
They are in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts before Senior Magistrate Leron Daly. All had pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Yesterday, Magistrate Daly made an order for a court notice to be sent to the prosecutor for him to report to the court on the next hearing, whether SOCU is proceeding with the charges or withdrawing them against the defendants.
The matter was then adjourned until October 2.
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