Only $3M of $4B repaid to alleged ponzi scheme “investors”

Dec 18, 2020 News

– lawyer says money is “safe” in Belize

Alleged Ponzi scheme operators, Yuri Garcia- Dominguez and his wife, Ateeka Ishmael.

Kaieteur News – Accelerated Capital Firm Inc., the company accused of bilking over 17,000 Guyanese of over US$20M ($4B), is still unable to publicize the number of investors that have been repaid.
However, the company, whose principals are facing over 80 charges, says a mere $3M was repaid.
Kaieteur News was told that the number of investors to be repaid is in the thousands, and that the repayment process will resume sometime in the new year.
Between the period August 26 and October 17, two officials of the company, Yuri Garcia Dominguez, and his wife, Ateeka Ishmael, were slapped with 80-plus fraud charges and two charges under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Act (AML/CFT).The latter charges were laid by the police’s Special Organized Crime Unit.
The couple is currently out on over $30M bail for all the charges.
Yesterday, more than two months after their last press conference, attorney-at-law, Dexter Todd who is representing the alleged Ponzi scheme operators, spoke to Kaieteur News at Sharon’s Mall, Georgetown.
During the interaction, Todd was asked about the total number of investors who have been repaid and the total value of the repayment. He was unable to provide any actual figure for the investors who recouped their investments, but stated that he is aware of $3M being repaid.
In fact, the lawyer said: “I do not have that stats right now … because I have not been monitoring the day-to-day payments at all, but what I can say is that persons were repaid and that $3M was repaid.”
He stated: “I don’t have that stats right now for that but what I know is that remaining persons to be repaid is still very significant.”
The repayment process commenced on October 12.
There has been growing anger over the delays with the principals blaming the authorities, including Attorney General, Anil Nandlall.
Last month, the alleged Ponzi scheme operators announced that no one will lose their investments and that they are slated to meet with heads of the state agencies who are currently investigating them.

Attorney-at-law, Dexter Todd.

During the sit-down yesterday, the lawyer confirmed that the he was scheduled to meet with the state agencies. He said only the Crime Chief’s office responded to his invite.
According to the lawyer, the remainder of the money is in a trading account in Belize and that it is safe. He mentioned that the police have evidence of the account and the amount of money in the account. He said if investors want evidence of the money being in the trading account, they can reach out to the company and make a request.
Todd stated: “The only issue is the access to it … once the activity of the account is cleared up and it comes out of loss and comes into profitability, then the access to the capital investment of that account becomes very easy.”
As such, he added that within four to five weeks the company should be able to withdraw larger amounts of cash from the account and be able to pay back some investors.
Kaieteur News had reported that the “investors” includes businessmen and church members, with a number of religious leaders accused of playing roles in recruiting unsuspecting Guyanese.
Accelerated, in a statement, had asked for patience: “We ask of you for your continued patience and tolerance as we assure you that no one will lose their investment and that an end to this matter will be soonest.”
In that release, too, the company acknowledged the delays in the repayment process that was announced by Garcia-Dominguez since September.
“This delay has not been without justification as the company is attempting to do everything legally possible to ensure that repayments are done in the shortest possible time.”
The company highlighted that the repayment process is stalled due to many obstacles from the ongoing investigation.
Earlier this month, the company had offered to repay its investors in digital money.
Garcia-Dominguez had announced that he is seeking to make the payments in crypto currency.
Crypto currency is a digital method designed to work as a medium of exchange, wherein an individual can do online transactions – the most popular crypto currency is bitcoins.
However, Attorney General (AG), Anil Nandlall, had told Kaieteur News, that the proposed crypto currency repayment method by the principals of ACF is not a legal tender in Guyana.
Kaieteur News had also contacted an official at the Bank of Guyana (BOG) who was unable to confirm the use of crypto currency in Guyana since the bank is not aware of it.
When asked about the crypto currency repayment, Todd stated that there is a way that the bitcoins can be brought to Guyana.
“There is a process of exchange, you withdraw bitcoins then you send the bitcoins to a bank who receives bitcoins…once the bitcoins is exchanged and you get the foreign currency then you wire that foreign currency to a local bank,” the lawyer said.
However, the company did not reach out to the Government to make any arrangement for the same process to be used to bring the money to local banks.
According to police, Garcia-Dominguez and Ishmael allegedly lured thousands of Guyanese claiming that by investing with their company, persons would get at least 40 percent return.
The investors were told that the money would be invested in trade of foreign currency and were also encouraged to enlist additional investors on a 10 percent commission basis.
According to reports, the company had never advertised their business in the mainstream media and the company is not registered with the Guyana Securities Council to conduct financial business, as either an investment advisor and/or a broker.
After complaints were made by investors of not receiving their money/returns, the new government launched an investigation into the alleged Ponzi scheme.
This led to the couple’s eventual arrests and a slew of charges.