Four men placed on bail, woman remanded for forging $19.4M in GRA cheques

May 19, 2021 News

Kaieteur News – Four men and a woman yesterday appeared before a City Magistrate after they were charged for forging $19.4M in Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) cheques. The four men were placed on $600,000 bail each while the woman was remanded to prison.
The defendants are: Romeschand Singh, 40, of Back Street, Squatting Area, Grove, East Bank Demerara; Komalram Persaud, 25, of Golden Grove; Devindra Moteeram, 24, of Jackson Dam, East La Penitence, Georgetown; Anush Khan, 29 of Golden Grove, Diamond; and Shareesa Tappin, 26, of Clifford Avenue, Georgetown. The matter was called in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts before Senior Magistrate Leron Daly.
The defendants were not required to plead to the indictable charges. The first charge alleges that Singh, between October 28, 2020 and May 11, 2021 conspired with Persaud, Moteeran, Khan and other persons to forge two Bank of Guyana (BOG) cheques, purporting that they were issued by the GRA’s Internal Revenue Department. One of the cheques was dated April 9, 2021 and was made out to the value of $9,550,000, while the other was dated April 20, 2021 and was made out to the value of $9,875,000. The charge further stated that the cheque valued $9, 875,000 was made out in the name of Shareeesa Tappin, who reportedly cashed it on May 11, 2021. Tappin was charged for presenting the forged cheque and for cashing it.
Senior Magistrate Daly placed Persaud, Singh, Moteeram, and Khan on $600,000 bail each with reporting conditions attached, while Tappin was remanded to prison and the matter was adjourned to June 21, 2021. Kaieteur News has reported that an investigation was launched by the Guyana Police Force (GPF) after three-forged GRA cheques were discovered to be cashed at a commercial bank. The discovery was made after an employee at the bank called GRA to confirm the issuance and the amount of a fourth cheque that was attempted to be cashed.
Commissioner General of GRA, Godfrey Statia, confirmed that the cheques are not authentic GRA cheques. He further highlighted that all cheques issued by the GRA are stamped “not negotiable”. He explained that this means that commercial banks are not allowed to cash them and that they must be deposited into a payee account. He had told this newspaper that the forgers have been en-cashing cheques at a commercial bank that purportedly shows that they were issued by the GRA. He further noted that the fact that the forged cheques were cashed at a commercial bank demonstrates some level of collusion between the forgers, the bank’s employees and likely some GRA employees who may have provided the forgers with the cheque numbers.
According to Statia, GRA’s original cheques are issued by the Bank of Guyana (BOG) and all of the cheques are in their possession. He disclosed that GRA will not be conducting any fraud investigation since the agency has the original cheques, whether blank or cancelled. After the discovery was made, the entity notified the police and an investigation was launched into the matter.
Statia has noted that the matter points to collusion between the bank employees and the forger or negligence.

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