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Natural Resources Ministry orders probe into gold dealer’s transactions

Complaints to the police about alleged money laundering activities of an embattled gold dealer were made to a senior Natural Resources Ministry official a few months ago, but no action was taken.

Gold dealer, Saddiqi ‘Bobby’ Rasul

A complaint then made to the Commissioner of Police is now the subject of investigations, with a number of persons expected to be questioned as early as today.
At the centre of the probe is gold dealer, Saddiqi ‘Bobby’ Rasul, who this week was slapped with several charges relating to an alleged $956M fraud at the Guyana Bank For Trade and Industry (GBTI). He was placed on $3M bail.
Rasul is now also being investigated by police for alleged money laundering. Investigators will be looking to see how deep his connections with the State-run Guyana Gold Board (GGB) went, and how much he benefitted from possible collusion there.
The police, according to officials, were handed a significant number of documents by a whistleblower to back up the complaint of alleged wrongdoing involving GGB staffers and Rasul.
In one correspondence to the police seen by Kaieteur News, the whistleblower alleged that the current manager of GGB’s branch at Bartica, Region Seven, reportedly received calls from a senior official from GGB’s Brickdam head office, instructing him to pay the highest of rates of the daily fixings.
Recordings of those instructions were handed over to a senior ministry official. However, no action was taken according to a complaint sent to police by the whistleblower.
It was made clear that persons within the industry knew what was happening but kept quiet as the name of a high-ranking government official was used as protection.
Staffers of GGB were threatened with sacking if they talked.
The whistleblower also said that GGB should not be involved in gold buying and should instead only be involved in the regulatory aspect of the mining business.
Rasul is in deep trouble with his businesses. Not only have his accounts at Citizens Bank and GBTI been closed, but Republic Bank has this week reportedly frozen almost $40M that he has there, on the instructions of investigators.
Without any bank accounts, gold dealing is virtually impossible, especially with tough anti-money laundering laws in place.
A number of his staffers have been questioned and cash seized from his Charity, Essequibo office.
His homes in Prashad Nagar and Bartica and office in Kitty were raided by investigators.
Rasul, owner of SSS Mineral, a company licensed to buy gold; and R. Mining, which is his mining outfit, made the news last week after an alleged $956M fraud was discovered at GBTI.
A female manager of the bank was sent home and Rasul arrested last Friday after GBTI filed a police complaint. The businessman was slapped with six charges of obtaining money by false pretence. He could face more.
One of the biggest gold dealers in Guyana, he appeared in court Monday and was placed on $3M bail having been slapped with six counts of fraud — $500,000 on each count.
Yesterday, the bank manager of the Bartica branch of GBTI who had been sent home pending investigations, was arrested at the police headquarters, Eve Leary ,where she had gone with a lawyer.
The police had announced intentions to issue a wanted bulletin for her.
It was alleged that the gold dealer had no credit facilities at any bank, but started purchasing gold, purportedly from miners, in large quantities in 2014, sometimes even paying more than $10,000 above other dealers for one ounce of the precious material. This caused raised eyebrows by others in the trade.
Brazilian miners were apparently targeted for the gold.
Officials said that it was explained that the scam occurred when instead of using his gold dealing company, Rasul bought the gold through SSS Minerals, but allegedly sold the gold to the Gold Board via his mining company. This was deliberately passed as mined gold. Almost $300M in taxes were lost.
Sometimes the transactions occurred multiple times daily via R. Mining, according to documents seen by Kaieteur News.
According to officials, where Rasul allegedly made a killing was when he only paid the five percent royalties that are applicable to mining companies. Gold dealers are made to pay not only the royalties, but also a two percent tax, making it a total of seven percent.
It was pointed out that it is highly unusual for any mining company to have several wash-downs daily, unless they are large scale in nature. There are only two large scale mining companies in Guyana – Troy Resources and Guyana Goldfields. Rasul is not known to be a large-scale miner.
Investigators reportedly had details of banking records to support the money laundering complaint against Rasul.
It was alleged that in two months alone, Rasul’s companies deposited and withdrew $17B. Sometimes there were as many as seven withdrawals in one day.
Why GGB senior officials never picked up the warning signs that something was wrong with the transactions are among some of the questions that investigators will want to know.
It was explained that the Gold Board would, under an established system, lock in prices based on the market prices overseas. This meant that prices could fall or rise within a day.
The complaint alleged that US authorities, like Homeland Security and the FBI, may have had an interest in Rasul as far back as 2014 and early 2015, for gold exported to the country.

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Nehru posted:
RiffRaff posted:

I don't know if he a PPP thief, but these fellas get a bit too greedy

Ray, a FILTH HEAD RACIST PIG will always spew his RACIST GARBAGE!!!!

What's racist about?

Mr.T

Where does it say he is PPP or acting behalf of the PPP?  Should we indict a political party every time one of its members is charged with a crime? He being Indian does not make him PPP.  How do you know he is not a supporter of the AFC or APNU?  

Billy Ram Balgobin

I think he may have been speculating on the raw gold price going up rapidly but it did not turn out that way but the bank needed their money back with interest and they did not get it.

Prashad
Last edited by Prashad

Any good attorney (Am not talking of a battery of attorneys) will eat up this case, like tea, breakfast and dinner. It seems like Rasul has been doing what he was supposed in withdrawing and depositing Cash.
So far there is only an investigation on going and I do not see where anyone has been charged for thiefing,  Re:

"Natural Resources Ministry orders probe into gold dealer’s transactions. "

FM
Billy Ram Balgobin posted:

Where does it say he is PPP or acting behalf of the PPP?  Should we indict a political party every time one of its members is charged with a crime? He being Indian does not make him PPP.  How do you know he is not a supporter of the AFC or APNU?  

WHen other posters start topics blaming PNC for crimes committed by Afros, this is what you get in response

FM
asj posted:

Any good attorney (Am not talking of a battery of attorneys) will eat up this case, like tea, breakfast and dinner. It seems like Rasul has been doing what he was supposed in withdrawing and depositing Cash.
So far there is only an investigation on going and I do not see where anyone has been charged for thiefing,  Re:

"Natural Resources Ministry orders probe into gold dealer’s transactions. "

He has been avoiding paying the correct amount of tax. He cashed cheques whilst knowing that he had no funds to back them up. And that's just two reasons why he should be locked up.

Mr.T
RiffRaff posted:
Billy Ram Balgobin posted:

Where does it say he is PPP or acting behalf of the PPP?  Should we indict a political party every time one of its members is charged with a crime? He being Indian does not make him PPP.  How do you know he is not a supporter of the AFC or APNU?  

WHen other posters start topics blaming PNC for crimes committed by Afros, this is what you get in response

Exactly! It is wrong to place blame on a political party for crimes commited and should be discontinued. Now instead of agreeing this fellow is wrong, those who back the PPP will take this as a slap in the face. Same goes for those blaming the PNC because a crime is commited by a black person.

When a crime is commited in NA we don't say it was done by a Democrat, Republican, Conservative, Liberal etc the perp is blamed for their actions and we all go against what they did. Is just that some Guyanese people dem stupidy bad bad.

cain
asj posted:

Any good attorney (Am not talking of a battery of attorneys) will eat up this case, like tea, breakfast and dinner. It seems like Rasul has been doing what he was supposed in withdrawing and depositing Cash.
So far there is only an investigation on going and I do not see where anyone has been charged for thiefing,  Re:

"Natural Resources Ministry orders probe into gold dealer’s transactions. "

Ex GBTI bank manager linked to $956M fraud surrenders to cops.

Source

The former bank manager who was wanted by the police for questioning in relation to a recent multi-million-dollar fraud at the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI) branch in Bartica, yesterday turned herself over to the police.

Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum told Stabroek News that the woman surrendered at the Criminal Investigation Depart-ment (CID) Headquarters yesterday afternoon, in the company of her lawyer.

She was promptly arrested.

Her surrender came a day after Saddiqi Mohamad Rasul faced charges for allegedly defrauding the GBTI Bartica branch of over $956M last month.

This newspaper was previously informed that Rasul, who is the owner of SSS Minerals Trading deposited the cheques into his GBTI account and then several procedures were breached.

Reports revealed that staff of the bank issued payments to Rasul without the cheques, which came from another bank, being cleared.

It is alleged that the bank manager was involved in allowing Rasul to withdraw millions of dollars in cash.

The cheques later bounced and the police were called in, while the bank manager was relieved of her duties.

On Monday, Rasul was charged with six counts of fraud.

It was alleged that between March 21 and March 22, at Bartica, with intent to defraud, Rasul obtained from GBTI $96 million, $290 million, $89 million, $45 million, $298 million and $138 million by falsely pretending that he had cash in a Citizens Bank account to honour corresponding Citizens Bank cheques.

He denied the charges and was granted his release on a total of $3M bail. The matter was transferred to the Bartica Magistrate’s Court for April 21.

Django
RiffRaff posted:
Billy Ram Balgobin posted:

Where does it say he is PPP or acting behalf of the PPP?  Should we indict a political party every time one of its members is charged with a crime? He being Indian does not make him PPP.  How do you know he is not a supporter of the AFC or APNU?  

WHen other posters start topics blaming PNC for crimes committed by Afros, this is what you get in response

So you see nothing wrong this type of behavior? I don't blame the PNC for every crime committed by a black person.  I criticized them for defending criminals as innocent citizens when indeed they were cold blooded murders. Leave that to their lawyers.

Billy Ram Balgobin
Mr.T posted:
asj posted:

Any good attorney (Am not talking of a battery of attorneys) will eat up this case, like tea, breakfast and dinner. It seems like Rasul has been doing what he was supposed in withdrawing and depositing Cash.
So far there is only an investigation on going and I do not see where anyone has been charged for thiefing,  Re:

"Natural Resources Ministry orders probe into gold dealer’s transactions. "

He has been avoiding paying the correct amount of tax. He cashed cheques whilst knowing that he had no funds to back them up. And that's just two reasons why he should be locked up.

We have seen that Rasul was paying his five percent taxes, but not the other two percent: So my friend T, this cannot be said that the man was avoiding paying taxes, maybe there are some issues with the other two percent, of which he will work out with the tax receiving authority/ies.
So your argument of taxes holds nothing to put a tab on Rasul as being a thief:

Your other point of having no funds is just as weak as your first; as we are being told that re: Rasul’s companies deposited and withdrew $17B. Sometimes there were as many as seven withdrawals in one day. also we are being told that two I repeat two Banks put a hold on Rasul's funds, in their Bank..........this is not to say that the man does not have any money.

My advise is let the investigations continues do not jump to wild accusations.

FM
Billy Ram Balgobin posted:
RiffRaff posted:
Billy Ram Balgobin posted:

Where does it say he is PPP or acting behalf of the PPP?  Should we indict a political party every time one of its members is charged with a crime? He being Indian does not make him PPP.  How do you know he is not a supporter of the AFC or APNU?  

WHen other posters start topics blaming PNC for crimes committed by Afros, this is what you get in response

So you see nothing wrong this type of behavior? I don't blame the PNC for every crime committed by a black person.  I criticized them for defending criminals as innocent citizens when indeed they were cold blooded murders. Leave that to their lawyers.

If I didn't see anything wrong with it, why would I bring it up....it's a waste of time to tell big men to start acting grown up

FM

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