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Sanctions on Mohameds, PS Thomas backed by mountain of evidence – US Ambassador
…says investigation went on for more than 2 years
Kaieteur News – United States Ambassador to Guyana, Nicole Theriot on Friday provided insights into the recent sanctions imposed by the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Guyanese billionaire Nazar Mohamed, his son Azruddin Mohamed and government official Mae Thomas.
United States Ambassador to Guyana, Nicole Theriot
The OFAC made allegations against the Mohameds for a series of corruption – including gold smuggling. It is alleged that Thomas, the Permanent Secretarey (PS) for the Ministry of Labour, misused her position to offer benefits, like government contracts to the Mohameds.
On the sideline of an event at the U.S. Embassy in Georgetown, Ambassador Theriot said the sanctions, are the result of over two and a half years of investigations by US authorities.
Ambassador Theriot highlighted the gravity of the offenses that led to these sanctions. She stated, “We reserve these types of sanctions for gross levels of corruption and human rights abuses.”
Theriot went on to explain that, “it’s a very high bar, we do not do this lightly. This is something that we ensure that we have a preponderance of evidence before we’re ready to levy the sanctions and we had that in this case against the three individuals who were sanctioned.”
Senior Minister with responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh and Commissioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), Godfrey Statia have since written to the OFAC requesting additional information on the allegations.
In response to queries about sharing evidence with local authorities, Theriot explained that she had immediately passed the request to the Treasury Department. “I strongly recommended that they share as much of that evidence is that is unclassified or that they can share because we have a wonderful partnership with the government of Guyana,” she added.
Theriot underscored that she strongly recommended to her partners in Washington that they provide the Guyanese government with as much information as possible to aid local investigation. She said too, “We want them (local authorities) to be able to take that information and do with it what they need to do.”
On the timeline for presenting this evidence, Theriot expressed a desire for urgency. “I wish I could, I wish it was today. That would be wonderful. But unfortunately, I don’t control the entire US government. So I did ask them though, to expedite it,” she said.
Moreover, addressing concerns about local agencies being left in the dark, Theriot explained the necessity of confidentiality during investigations. “We tend to not share a lot of information until the investigation reaches a certain stage and so I regret that people feel that they’ve been left in the dark,” she said.
The Ambassador continued, “…It would be exactly the same way if we were conducting an investigation against someone accused of corruption in the United States. We would not share that information until the investigation we’re at a stage where that was that was possible.”
Furthermore, Theriot also clarified the types of information that could be shared with Guyanese authorities, noting that unclassified information and certain levels of sensitive but unclassified information could be provided.
“There is classified information that we can request be declassified, that we can be allowed to share,” she explained.
Ambassador Theriot said too that, “I’ve absolutely requested that and I was very clear in my request that we want to be able to share as much as humanly possible because we want to be very transparent, the government of Guyana has been very transparent.”
When asked about the possibility of other individuals being sanctioned, Theriot said that the investigation was specific to three sanctioned individuals and at this time she is not aware of any additional investigation. However, regarding the potential for criminal charges being imposed by the US on the sanctions individuals, the Ambassador acknowledged that it is always a possibility, though she is not aware of any at this time.
Moreover, the government has since revoked the Mohameds cambio licence and is taking measures to safeguard the country’s financial system. Also, Thomas has been sent on leave pending investigation.
- Commissioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), Dr. Ashni Singh, finance, Godfrey Statia, Nicole Theriot, United States Ambassador to Guyana
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