Latest update April 18th, 2025 8:12 AM
Govt. asked the Mohameds to declare gold to boost 2024 declaration—Nazar Mohamed says
…Declaration is required by law
Kaieteur News- Despite claims that it stopped doing business with the Mohameds, officials of the Government of Guyana (GoG) had reached out to United States-sanctioned businessmen, Nazar “Shell” Mohamed and Azruddin Mohamed, for them to declare their gold in order to boost the 2024 gold declarations.
U.S.-sanctioned businessmen Nazar Mohamed and his son, Azruddin Mohamed
Last year, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on the Mohameds over allegations of tax evasion and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Labour, Mae Thomas, for allegedly misusing her position to offer benefits—such as government contracts—to the Mohameds.
Nazar Mohamed told this publication, “I was called by a senior minister and I was called by a permanent secretary of another senior minister, asking me to make the declaration.” Since being sanctioned in June 2024, Shell Mohamed recently started speaking out. He has alleged that since then, senior figures within the People’s Progressive Party government have deliberately misrepresented the imposed U.S. sanctions, which he says has led to a systematic effort to affect their businesses.
Mohamed had pointed to difficulties in renewing mining and quarry licences and the revocation of his Cambio licence without justification. “We have, for the past 14 years, about 80,000 acres of mining land. We never had an issue of renewing it yearly. Pay all the royalties on it. When I called the (GGMC) Commissioner- I wrote to him, I called him- he said that, well, he’s going to get back to me. Many, many months have now passed and he doesn’t get back to me. So, we are contemplating, you know, to maybe go to court on this issue,” the businessman added.
Moreover, he also claimed that despite reports of other businesses engaging in illegal financial activities, authorities have failed to take action. “There is this guy… this businessman who has been buying gold from Venezuelan men dressed in military uniform, 99.9% gold export, it returns the money to a city bank, billions of US dollars within a four-year span, almost put the country financial system into crisis, and nothing has been done about that,” Mohamed said.
Notably, Shell Mohamed has attributed the hostility from the party towards his family, to his son’s political ambitions. Kaieteur News had reported that gold production in Guyana saw a modest increase of 1,954 ounces in 2024, from 432,113 ounces in 2023 to 434,067 ounces in 2024 a growth of 0.5%.
Guyana’s gold industry has seen a noticeable decline in declarations over the past few years. It was reported that from 2019 to 2023, gold declarations dropped by approximately 209,000 troy ounces, according to the Bank of Guyana’s annual reports. “For the first time in nine years, we have seen an increase in production from the previous year,” Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat disclosed at his ministry’s end-of-year press conference last year. Despite the small rise in production, the total gold revenue for 2024 reached an impressive US$989.9 million, marking a significant US$180 million increase over the previous year. This can be attributed to high gold prices that were recorded last year.
(Govt. asked the Mohameds to declare gold to boost 2024 declaration—Nazar Mohamed says)
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