$2M High Court bail for former GRDB accountant, pending appeal against conviction

May 21, 2020 News

Former accountant of the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB), Peter Ramcharran has been granted $2M High Court bail pending his appeal against his three- year conviction for fraud.

Former GRDB Accountant, Peter Ramcharran

Ramcharran was sentenced in February, 2020, by Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan, for one of the fraud charges, several months after being extradited from Canada to face fraud allegations.

Ramcharran was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for omitting $145M from the entity’s ledger.

That was one of the first major convictions for the Special Organised Crime Unit (SSOCU) ,,.

The Chief Magistrate, in giving a synopsis of her ruling, held that SOCU Prosecutor Patrice Henry was able to prove all the elements of the offence beyond a reasonable doubt.

The Magistrate added that she is of the view that Ramcharran intended to willfully deprive the entity of the monies.

During a plea of mitigation, Ramcharran’s lawyer, Nigel Hughes, stated that his client’s actions had no ramifications on GRDB, the State or the Ministry of Agriculture.

In asking the court to exercise leniency, Hughes said that his client has an unblemished record and is “deeply remorseful” for what happened. In fact, the lawyer told the court that the monies were not stolen; just not recorded in the ledger.

In handing down the sentence, the Chief Magistrate took into consideration the fact that the defendant evaded the police for almost two years. She also considered the sum of monies involved and the prevalence of these types of offences in society.

Ramcharran, 39, of Goedverwagting, East Coast Demerara, is slapped with 39 fraud-related charges. The trial for the other charges is still ongoing.

The charges leveled against him alleged that he fraudulently converted and misappropriated funds. The offences, according to SOCU, took place between January 1, 2011 and December 31, 2015, at GRDB’s Lot 16-17 Cowan Street, Kingston, Georgetown headquarters.

All the charges are related to his role at the GRDB. The rice entity was responsible for executing a major oil-for-rice deal worth billions with neighbouring Venezuela.

That deal ended suddenly in 2015 after this Coalition Government came into office. A forensic audit, one of several ordered by the Coalition Government, had found several alarming things at GRDB.

The GRDB found itself in the spotlight after a forensic audit of that entity revealed among some of the “anomalies” found were loans without proper paperwork or promissory notes.

According to information, the former accountant was heavily implicated in the probe with regards to the six former GRDB board members who were also charged.
The officials charged are former General Manager of the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) Jagnarine Singh; former Deputy General Manager of GRDB 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.

From about 2009 to 2015, Guyana, under the administration of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic, had entered into a multi-billion-dollar oil-for-rice arrangement where GRDB was clearing out for farmers.

However, millions of dollars of those monies were reportedly siphoned off via third-party arrangements including rental of ships and other sweetheart deals for a few millers.

In Canada, Ramcharran had first applied for refugee status. After he was turned down in December 2017, he sought a review of his extradition process, but this was turned down.

Ramcharran had reportedly been studying in Canada, when authorities swooped down on him in June 2017 following a request for his extradition.