Jagdeo sues SU for $50M over Vice News allegations

Jul 27, 2022 Court Stories, Features / Columnists, News

Kaieteur News – Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has filed a $50 million lawsuit against Chinese businessman, Mr. Su Zhi Rong over statements that the businessman made in a Vice News undercover report.

The lawsuit comes weeks after Jagdeo promised to take Su to court for defamation.

According to legal documents seen by this publication, Jagdeo through his Attorneys, Manoj Narayan and C.V. Satram, outlined that the statements made by Mr. Su that were contained in the news broadcast clearly imputed criminal and unlawful conduct on the part of the Vice President.

Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo.

The attorneys describe the statements made by Mr. Su as “defamatory and slanderous.” The lawsuit outlined that the said words were calculated to disparage Mr. Jagdeo personally and in the office he now holds.

According to the lawsuit, owing to the statements that were aired in the documentary, Jagdeo has suffered public condemnation, humiliation, ridicule, and embarrassment.

Adding to that, the legal document noted the statements have caused serious injury to the Vice President’s reputation and his political standing locally and internationally.

In the explosive undercover investigation, the Chinese businessman was recorded levelling bribery and corruption allegations against the Vice President. He was recorded telling the Vice News team who posed as investors that bribes would have to be paid to the Vice President for them to be guaranteed contracts in Guyana. He could be heard on the recording too telling the team that Jagdeo only accepts “cash.”

Chinese businessman, Mr. Su Zhi Rong

The documentary was viewed by thousands of Guyanese in Guyana and the diaspora. Additionally, the extended YouTube edition of the report has attracted more than 1.4 million views.

The Vice President has repeatedly denied the allegations in the extended news report which was aired on the US television network Showtime and posted on the social media site, YouTube.

Before it was released, he had claimed that the statements attributed to him as presented to the Vice President by a Vice News reporter were false. When the final report was published, there were several recordings of Mr. Su making the statement.

The allegations have also triggered calls by a number of civil society groups and the Opposition for there to be a full independent investigation of the serious corruption allegations, which have all been denied by Vice President Jagdeo.

“Vice News came into my house to catch me doing something illegal and taking a bribe… and you couldn’t do that in my most unguarded moment…They have done this around the world with leaders they got taking bribes… they are never going to find anything of that nature with me,” Jagdeo had said.

Jagdeo said he was not conducting official government business at his home but was rather meeting with an investor of Su whom he described as a friend.

“Su did not get anything special here and it was not a government project, it was his investor he wanted me to meet.”

Notably, the Chinese businessman has not been seen or heard from, since the release of the undercover report.

He had, however, issued after the Vice News report, a statement saying: “I, Su Zhi Rong, wish to state categorically that I have never solicited any bribe/inducement from any company or individual for either myself or any government official including the Vice President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana.”

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