Reporters attempt to extort $90M from car dealer over ‘news story’

Sep 25, 2022 News

Kaieteur News – Two reporters were on Friday last caught in a sting-operation attempting to extort $90M from a auto dealer for the removal of a ‘news story’ published on a Facebook page dubbed Guyana News Network (GNN).

Gary Eleazer

The reporters – Gary Eleazar and Alex Wayne – said to be employees of GNN, are reportedly the authors of the story which was used in the alleged attempt to extort the cash from the car dealer.

According to the story, the auto dealer has been cheating the government of millions of dollars in taxes. The auto dealer has since denied the claim but alleged that the reporters demanded that he pay them $90M to remove the story from the Facebook page.

Addressing the matter on his Facebook page on Saturday, Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, SC, noted that the businessman had moved to lodge a police report against the two reporters on August 29, last and detectives decided to set-up a sting operation on Friday last to catch them.

Alex Wayne

Police, this publication was informed, got the businessman to convince the reporters that if they remove the story, he would pay them $1 million and they agreed.

A plan was formulated and the auto dealer was given marked cash to hand over to Eleazer and Wayne. The men, this publication was told, met with the auto dealer and they engaged in a conversation during which the marked cash was handed over.

Police ranks then made their move. It was revealed that the ranks located the reporters, conducted a search on them and found that they had already divided the marked cash between themselves.

Ranks also seized two cellphones and a laptop. Further searches were conducted at Eleazar’s home and police found another laptop, along with three hard drives which were also seized.

So far, police have secured a video confession from Wayne and he admitted to collaborating with another businessman identified as Dorwain Bess and Eleazer to publish the news report.

The two, police have confirmed, are in custody.