U.S SEC had barred Marriott top bidder from acting as an officer of public company

Apr 25, 2023 News

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…Was accused of orchestrating US$130M stock loan and manipulation scheme

Kaieteur News – The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) back in 2010 had barred American businessman, Ramy El-Batrawi– the top bidder for the “profitable” Guyana Marriott Hotel – from acting as an officer or director of a public company for a period of five years.

According to information from the SEC website,  the U.S body had filed fraud charges in 2006 against Ramy El-Batrawi, Saudi businessman, Adnan Khashoggi, GenesisIntermedia, and others arising out of US$130 million stock loan and manipulation scheme. Notably, while El-Batrawi never accepted wrongdoings, in April 2010 the final judgment resulted in him being barred from running a public company for five years.

Moreover, El-Batrawi held discussions with President Irfaan Ali and other officials two times last year. The American businessman visited Guyana in October 2022 and in November 2022, where he held discussions with the President of Guyana. On October 13, 2022, El-Batrawi posted four pictures from the discussion he had with President Ali and other Guyanese officials. The post was captioned, “Meeting with the President of Guyana.” The following month, the American businessman visited Guyana again. In a post dated November 22, 2022, El-Batrawi shared pictures with himself, President Ali, United States Ambassador to Guyana, Sarah Ann Lynch and others with the caption, “Another great trip to Guyana spend a lot more time with the president and the American embassy. The American ambassador to Guyana is a great supporter of the country.”

One month later in December 2022, the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) announced the Government of Guyana (GoG) decision to sell the US$60 million Kingston Georgetown hotel, which is now making a profit. In March 2023, Vice President (VP) Bharrat Jagdeo revealed that the hotel has emerged into a profitable venture since coming to existence back in April 2015. The sale of the Marriott Hotel is being facilitated by the government, through NICIL. On April 17, NICIL received six proposals for the “profitable” Marriott Hotel. Coming in as the highest bidder at US$65 million is  Ramy El-Batwari who is listed as the principal of X, LLC, local businessman and owner of the Pegasus Hotel, Robert Badal in second with a bid of US$55.5 million. The third highest bidder spot goes to a local consortium, Integrated Group Guyana Limited, headed by Ravindra Prashad with a bid of US$55 million.

At fourth spot, there is Georgetown Investments and Management Services Inc. (Princess Hotel), General Manager Mustafa Eray Kanmaz bidding US$50 million. The lowest bidders are: NCB Capital Markets Limited, a Jamaican Company headed by Steve Gooding with a bid of US$33 million and Muneshwers Limited, owned by Amarnauth Muneshwer with the lowest bid of US$25 million.

Moreover, while there are no public financial statements available for the Marriott Hotel since 2015, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NICIL, Radha Krishna Sharma, had disclosed that to date the audits for the years 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, together with the field audits for the year 2020 and 2021 has been completed following the intervention of the new Board of Directors for the hotel. He noted however, that the audit for the year 2022 is still ongoing and when this is completed, the audited accounts will be published.

PROFITABLE BUSINESS

The Marriott Hotel started under the Jagdeo administration when he was President using taxpayers’ dollars and with a syndicated loan through the Republic Bank Limited of Trinidad and had opened its doors on April 17, 2015.

Jagdeo said during a press conference that the Marriott Hotel is “a profitable venture” and is “making a profit”, but stated that it is of no supreme benefit to the Government owning it anymore. The VP justified the sale of the hotel by stating that within a few years several hotels are expected to come on stream and in order to avoid competition, this is the best time to maximize the profit and sell the hotel.

Importantly, the Vice President also stated that the proceeds from the sale of the hotel will be used, “to clear off the remaining loan and some of it will come back to the Treasury to be used back for whatever purpose is determined.” Kaieteur News had highlighted that under the syndicated loan agreement, the preferred rights goes to those investors – meaning that in the event of the hotel being unable to service the loan – the unknown investors would have the first lien on the proceeds of any sale.

Notably, a decision by the former administration has resulted in US$1.1 million ($226 million) of taxpayers’ dollars coming out every six months (since 2017) to service the US$27 million loan from the bank – for a 13-year period. This was after the hotel was unable to service the loan. In order to prevent the hotel from being acquired by the bank, the former Government in April 2017 made the decision to transfer the hotel’s financial obligations to the Central Government. However, VP Jagdeo stated that while in Opposition, the PPP-administration was opposed to the hotel’s financial obligation being transferred.

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• Jagdeo, Marriott hotel, profitable business, Ramy El-Batrawi, Saudi

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