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Police Prosecutor request more time in former GRDB accountant’s fraud case
Kaieteur News – The prosecution for the fraud matter involving former accountant of the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB), Peter Ramcharran, has asked the court for more time to sort out the case file.
Former GRDB accountant, Peter Ramcharran
Ramcharran was slapped with 32 fraud charges, which amounted to $414 million. In February 2020, Ramcharran of Goedverwagting, East Coast Demerara was sentenced to three years imprisonment, by Chief Magistrate, Ann McLennan, after he was found guilty of omitting $145 million from the rice entity’s ledger.
His conviction was later appealed by his lawyer, Nigel Hughes, and he also managed to secure $2 million High Court bail.
While Ramcharran is out awaiting the outcome of his appeal, he still faces 17 other fraud charges before Principal Magistrate, Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus, in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts – which allege that he kept fraudulent accounts.
On Monday when those matters were called in the City Court before Magistrate Dylon Bess, Police Prosecutor Neville Jeffers asked the court for time to sort out the case file.
Prosecutor Jeffers explained that as a result of the disruption that was caused by the fire at the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), Eve Leary, Georgetown, over the weekend, he will need some time to sort out his files.
Magistrate Bess granted the prosecutor’s request, but ordered that all files in the case must be submitted to the court by January 19, 2022 and on January 26, 2022, the trial for the matter is expected to commence before Principal Magistrate Isaacs-Marcus.
According to reports, the offences took place between January 1, 2011 and December 31, 2015, at the GRDB’s Lot 16-17 Cowan Street, Kingston, Georgetown, headquarters.
Ramcharran’s three-year conviction was one of the first major convictions for the Special Organized Crime Unit (SOCU), an arm of the Guyana Police Force, which instituted the charges against him.
Kaieteur News had reported that during 2019 Ramcharran was extradited from Canada to face fraud allegations amounting to $414M. All the charges relate to his role at the GRDB.
The rice entity was responsible for executing a major oil-for-rice deal worth billions of dollars with neighbouring Venezuela. That deal ended suddenly in 2015 by a hostile Venezuela after the Coalition Government came into office. The Board found itself in the spotlight after a forensic audit of that entity revealed, among other “anomalies”, that there were loans without proper paperwork or promissory notes. According to the information, the former Accountant was allegedly, heavily implicated in the probe with regard to the six former GRDB Board members, who were also charged.
From about 2009 to 2015, Guyana, under the then administration of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic, had entered a multi-billion-dollar oil-for-rice arrangement, which the GRDB was clearing out for farmers. However, millions of dollars of those monies were reportedly siphoned off via third-party arrangements, including rental of ships and other sweetheart deals for a few millers.
The officials who were charged included: the former GDRB General Manager, Jagnarine Singh; former Deputy General Manager, Madanlall Ramraj; General Secretary of the Rice Producers Association (RPA), Dharamkumar Seeraj; former Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Amerindian Affairs, Nigel Dharamlall; former General Manager of the Guyana Oil Company, Badrie Persaud; and the Deputy Permanent Secretary, Finance, of the Ministry of Agriculture, Prema Roopnarine.
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