CJ strikes down attempt by alleged Ponzi schemers to stop investigations, court proceedings

Dec 13, 2020 News

Yuri Garcia-Dominguez and Ateeka Ishmael

Kaieteur News – Chief Justice (ag) Roxane George -Wiltshire has struck out the application filed by alleged Ponzi schemers, Yuri Garcia Dominguez and Ateeka Ishmael, for orders to prohibit the police from instituting or continuing the prosecution of criminal charges already instituted against them.
The couple are accused of operating a major Ponzi scheme that defrauded thousands of Guyanese of hundreds of millions of dollars. They had moved to the High Court to get the orders to bar the police investigation and court proceedings.
However, last Wednesday, the Chief Justice (ag), who heard the matter, upheld Attorney General (AG) Anil Nandlall’s submissions and struck out the Fixed Date Application (FDA) by the couple.
In relation to the orders sought, the Chief Justice ruled that Dominguez and Ishmael produced no evidence in their affidavit in support of FDA to support the reliefs sought.
As it concerns the first order, the court ruled that there was no law that permits an order of prohibition against the Commissioner of Police from instituting or continuing to institute criminal charges and in any case the applicants failed to adduce evidence supporting such an order.
The Court also denied several other orders sought noting inter alia, that they were not within the discretion of the Attorney General but within the ambit of the Central Bank of Guyana and therefore misconceived.
The Chief Justice found that the AG has no authority to unfreeze funds held in the couple’s bank accounts. As such, the Chief Justice ruled in favour of the Attorney General.
The Chief Justice, in the course of her ruling, stated that the Applicants failed to adduce any evidence in support of the reliefs sought in their Fixed Date Application against the Attorney General, Commissioner of Police and Director of Public Prosecutions.
Costs were awarded to the AG in the sum of $250,000 and that same is to be paid on or before the December 31, 2020.
Appearing in the case with the Attorney General were Deborah Kumar, Deputy Solicitor General; Tiffini Barton, State Counsel and Abiola Lowe, State Counsel.
Dexter Todd, Paula Nicholson, Shaunella Glen and Adrian Smith represented Garcia-Dominguez and Ishmael.
The couple had sought court orders directing the AG to unfreeze accounts held in the name of Accelerated Capital Firm Inc. (ACFI) at the Bank of Baroda.
Garcia-Dominguez and Ishmael are the Financial Advisor and Trading Operator, and Director, respectively, of ACFI, which is currently under a major fraud investigation being conducted by the Guyana Police Force.
The couple has been slapped with 80-plus charges of fraud as well as two anti-money laundering one.

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