Jagdeo awaits default Judgement after Mr. Su fails to show up in Court

Mar 31, 2024 Court Stories, Features / Columnists, News

---

By Shervin Belgrave

Kaieteur News – Vice President Jagdeo on sidelines of his press-conference on Thursday said that he is awaiting a default judgment in a $50M lawsuit he had filed in 2022 against his former friend and tenant, Zhi Rong Su.

Speaking with a Kaieteur News reporter, Jagdeo reportedly said, “We are awaiting judgment by the court, that’s the update”. Last Tuesday Guyana’s Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, SC during his weekly programme called ‘Issues in the News’ had said that Su never showed up in court to defend himself.

“I am informed that he has never entered an appearance nor filed a defence to the lawsuit filed against him by the vice president and that is where the matters are”, Nandlall told his viewers while explaining that the media had reported a non-story when it highlighted that the United Nations Human Rights Committee had questioned government’s failure to invest allegations of corruption against Jagdeo.

He too like the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira who responded to the question at the Committee’s 140^th session said that there was no official police report filed against the VP and that he (the VP) had repeatedly and publicly refuted the allegations made against him in a VICE News televised report.  

Jagdeo was implicated in collecting bribes for multi-million dollar government contracts in a VICE News documentary that premiered on July 7, 2022. Su had disclosed to VICE News reporters posing as Chinese investors that Jagdeo took “cash bribes” for the contracts and that he was his middle man.

In the documentary, Jagdeo called Su “a good friend of ours” and his tenant during an interview with one of the VICE news reporters. However, when the full documentary was aired and Jagdeo learnt of the corruption allegations against him, he threatened to sue that same “good friend” for $50M for defaming his character but reportedly could not find him to serve the lawsuit. One year and months later, Jagdeo revealed that he had found Su. 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. The attorneys had described 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. Additionally, the legal document noted the statements have caused serious injury to the Vice President’s reputation and his political standing locally and internationally.

In Vice News undercover investigation, the Chinese businessman was recorded saying 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.”

The documentary also showed that Su took the “fake Chinese investors to Jagdeo’s home to meet him. 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 two million views to date.

Jagdeo’s defence is that he had repeatedly denied the allegations in the extended news report which was aired on the US television network Showtime and posted on YouTube. The allegations had 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 had said too that he was not conducting official government business at his home but was rather meeting with an investor of Su. “Su did not get anything special here and it was not a government project, it was his investor he wanted me to meet.”

Notably Su, the man Jagdeo had described in the documentary as a “friend” has amassed a significant portion of mineral-rich land under the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) administration. Su holds some 12,000 acres of precious stones and gold-rich lands under his name. This information is provided in the Guyana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GYEITI) documents.

While jagdeo awaits his default judgment in the case, the Top Cop, Clifton Hicken has been written a formal complaint to investigate corruption allegations against Jagdeo. Hicken was written by a local organisation called Institute for Action Against Discrimination (IFAAD).

---

• Bharrat Jagdeo, Corruption Allegations, lawsuit, VICE News, Zhi-Rong Su

---