Cuban national Yuri Garcia-Dominguez and his Guyanese wife, Ateeka Ishmael during their first court appearance
Cuban national Yuri Garcia-Dominguez and his Guyanese wife, Ateeka Ishmael, are now facing a whopping 52 charges in relation to a massive Ponzi Scheme they have been allegedly running in Guyana, swindling persons of some $190.7 million.
While they were granted bail totalling $23.6 million on 46 of the charges, they were remanded to prison on six of them.
The husband-and-wife duo are associated with Accelerated Capital Firm Incorporated (ACFI), which is currently under investigation for illegal activities in which the company claimed that it used a foreign exchange platform to trade the investments, which amount to millions of dollars.
On Wednesday, the couple were slapped with 11 new charges when they appeared via Skype before Magistrate Dylon Bess at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts.
This time, Police are alleging that Dominquez, 34, and Ishmael, 32, both of Track A Coldingen, East Coast Demerara, between May and July 2020 with intent to commit a felony, conspired with persons, known and unknown, to obtain more than $75 million overall from 11 victims under false pretence.
They were not required to plead to this set of charges and were granted bail to the tune of $3.3 million each. They were instructed to return to court on September 7, 2020.
On Tuesday, they appeared virtually before Magistrate Fabayo Azore, who read 12 similar charges to them. Those charges stated that between the aforementioned dates, with intent to commit a felony, they conspired with persons, known and unknown, to obtain over $30 million in total from 12 persons under false pretence.
They pleaded not guilty to the charges and were granted bail in the sum of $3.6 million each. They will make their next court appearance for these charges on September 21.
Only on Monday, the couple were slapped with 10 charges, which alleged that between May 2020 and July 2020, with intent to commit a felony, they conspired with persons, known and unknown, to obtain in excess of $60 million in total from 10 persons under false pretence.
They were granted bail in the sum of $1 million each and were ordered to return to court on October 5.
Meanwhile, on Thursday last, a total of 19 charges were read to them in two separate courts. In this matter, the Police stated that the couple collected $24.7 million from 13 persons, and another $1 million from six persons. They were granted $3.9 million bail each on 13 of the charges. They were remanded to prison on six of the charges.
The couple are being represented by lawyers Glen Hanoman and Dexter Todd.
