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Heath-London, James Bond, others for court today on fraud charges
Kaieteur News – After several months of investigation, the Guyana Police Force (GPF) yesterday laid charges against the Former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), Colvin Heath-London; People’s National Congress Reform (PNC/R) member, James Bond.
Colvin Heath-London.
James Bond.
Also charged are Director of A-Z Pharmaceuticals Medical Supplies and Equipment Inc., Eddie Doolal, and a principal of ARKEN Group Inc., Jermaine Richmond.The four men were slapped with three fraud charges in relation to the giveaway of prime state lands at Plantation Peter’s Hall, East Bank Demerara. They are slated to make their first court appearance today in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan.
According to a source, Heath-London and Bond were implicated in all three of the joint charges.
Heath-London and Bond are jointly charged for the first charge. Doolal is implicated in the second joint charge and Richmond is implicated in the third joint charge.
Kaieteur News understands that Heath-London and Bond are involved in all the deals which saw acres of prime state lands being transferred.
According to reports, Doolal and Life 1 Pharms Inc. Director, Avalon Jagnanadan, both leased 15 acres of prime state land from NICIL but transferred the state land at a price to a Chinese National, Jianfen Yu. However, Jagnanadan has not been charged.
Jermaine Richmond.
Eddie Doolal.
It is further alleged that in another land deal, Richmond on behalf of a company, leased from NICIL 20.3 acres of land at Peter’s Hall on May 9, 2018 for a 20-year period at US$16,224 per year. According to reports, Bond received a payment from Trinidad logistics company, Lennox Petroleum, for the sale of 10 acres of the land leased to the company that Richmond leased the land for.
The same company also sold the other 10 acres to local logistics company GLASS Holdings Inc. on October 10, 2019.
Kaieteur News had reported that the government of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic, which came to office in August after a five-month impasse following the March 2 elections, had insisted that it found a significant number of irregular land transactions involving state properties, including former sugar lands worth billions of dollars.
A number of companies have already returned lands, which were supposed to be developed.
In these instances, investigators found that NICIL, as the representative of the people of Guyana for the transactions, did not even collect all the money when it transferred lands into the recipients’ names.
The police and its Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) are involved in the investigations.
SOCU’s role may involve investigating whether crimes relating to money laundering were committed. The land transactions, which spans from Wales, Peter’s Hall and Ogle, have seen attention coming down on a number of former ministers within the Coalition Government of David Granger, now in Opposition.
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