$19.4M forged cheques matter… GRA employees, others charged

May 22, 2021 News

Kaieteur News – Yesterday, two employees from the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), and two other men appeared before a City Magistrate to answer to the charge of forging $19.4M in GRA cheques.

Those charged are Randi Gladstone, 38; Leroy Green, 26, an accountant of William Street, Kitty, Georgetown; Ivor Dowridge, 26, of Second Street, Cummings Lodge, East Coast Demerara, and Tooqwan Clarke, 25,of West Ruimveldt, Georgetown. Green and Dowridge are GRA employees.

The four men appeared in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts before Senior Magistrate, Leron Daly. However, they were not the first persons who were charged for the offence. The persons who were first charged 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.

Gladstone, Dowridge, Green and Clarke were not required to plead to the indictable charges that were read to them. The charges alleges that Gladstone, between October 28, 2020 and May 11, 2021, conspired with Greene, Dowridge, Clarke, Singh, Persaud, Moteeram, Khan, Tappin and others, to forge two Bank of Guyana (BoG) cheques, purporting that they were issued by the GRA’s Internal Revenue Department.

The charges further stated that 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.

Police prosecutor, Richard Harris, made objections to bail being granted to Gladstone citing that he has a similar matter before the court, which was committed on the Ministry of Business. Senior Magistrate Daly placed Clarke, Green and Dowridge on $600,000 bail each and remanded Gladstone to prison. The matter was then adjourned to July 2, 2021.

On Tuesday, Singh, Persaud, Moteeram, Khan and Tappin made their court appearance. They were slapped with two joint charges which allege that they conspired with each other and others to forged two BOG cheques. Tappin was charged separately for presenting and cashing one of the cheques that was made out in her name.

The Magistrate had placed Persaud, Singh, Moteeram, and Khan on $600,000 bail each with reporting conditions attached, while Tappin was remanded to prison since she is currently serving a sentence. They are expected to make their next court appearance on June 21, 2021.

Kaieteur News had 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, had 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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