After a three-year investigation, the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) recently revealed that twenty-two companies in China received transactions covering some 268 transactions on behalf of Chinese “businesses” in Guyana. SOCU has only filed charges of money laundering against an East Bank Demerara family of a mother, father and son, the Ramnarine family.
Chartered Accountant and Attorney Law Christopher Ram, in a recent Letter to the Editor, is of the view, “SOCU would have had on its radar the Guyanese family used as the front for the real criminals operating in Guyana. No doubt, with appropriate inducement and bargaining, those persons could provide precise information on the Chinese persons in Guyana on whose behalf they were acting.”
Ram stated, “Additionally, SOCU as an arm of the Guyana Police Force has vast powers of investigation and arrest for cause in criminal matters. It could have gone to court for permission to intercept telecommunication between the family and the locally resident Chinese and the beneficiaries in China, and prevent persons from leaving the country, as it did with members of the Guyanese family.”
“After the distant and forgotten ‘Su-Gate’ episode, SOCU had the opportunity to nail the real criminals and put an end to the apparent immunity with which Chinese businesses appear to operate in Guyana, whether in natural resources, preferential access to prime land, tax evasion and the procurement of Government permits. We might even have found out those businesses which are extensions of the People’s Republic of China (the State) and those which are genuine, privately owned”, Ram posited.
