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Agents withholding repayments to investors– Alleged Ponzi Schemer, Yuri
Kaieteur News- Alleged Ponzi scheme operator Yuri Garcia-Dominguez has stated that his agents have collected millions to re-pay his company’s investors but are now withholding their monies. As a result of this, Garcia-Dominguez has advised the investors to report the matter to the Guyana Police Force (GPF).
Crime Chief, Wendell Blanhum told this newspaper yesterday that several of the company’s investors have since lodged reports with the GPF against the agents and investigations have begun.
According to information received, the agents collected a commission for every investor they recruited to invest with Garcia-Dominguez’s company, Accelerated Capital Firm Inc. (ACF). The agents allegedly collected some $900M from ACF to payback its investors but to date no money has been repaid. Kaieteur News was told that the monies being withheld by the agents are reserves that were set aside to repay investors in case the company’s operations should ever run into issues.
Alleged Ponzi scheme operators, Yuri Garcia-Dominguez and his wife Ateeka Ishmael.
According to a WhatsApp message seen by this publication, Garcia-Dominguez informed ACF investors, “Your agent[s] collected commissions on your behalf. A percentage of that commissions earned are to give back to the clients being that the company had to stop operating.”
The message further stated, that ACF will return 30% of investments made back to its investors, while the 70% ought to be returned by the agents. However, the message detailed that in order to get that 70% of investments back from the agents; investors must report them (agents) to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Headquarters, Eve Leary, Georgetown.
Garcia-Dominguez believes that if this is done, then the agents would be forced to re-pay the investors. “After making the report to CID you will then contact us. The company will repay you the 30% and because of the report made an investigation will be done against the agent for them to return to you the remaining of the capital,” the message stated.
Garcia-Dominguez is a Cuban national who was granted citizenship in June 2020. He and his wife, Ateeka Ishmael are accused of bilking Guyanese millions of dollars.
The alleged Ponzi scheme operators, are currently before the court facing 80 plus fraud charges and two charges under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism(AML/CFT) Act. The charges were brought against the couple by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) and signified the first time SOCU has instituted charges under the AML/CFT Act.
The AML/CFT Act, chapter 10:11, prohibits businesses from operating as financial institutions without the necessary registration for regulation and supervision by the Regulatory Authorities, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and Guyana Securities Council.
The duo is currently before three different courts facing charges, which allege that they obtain monies under false pretense. They were released on $30M bail after spending over a month in prison on remand.
Garcia-Dominguez and Ishmael are officials of ACF Inc., a company that lured thousands of Guyanese to invest their money and promised them a 40% profit on their investment. The company also encouraged its investors to enlist others in order to earn a 10% commission for each person they enlist.
The “investors” included businessmen and church members, with a number of religious leaders accused of playing roles in recruiting unsuspecting Guyanese.
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