‘Wealth doesn’t grant immunity’ from laws of Guyana – VP Jagdeo

…challenges Mohameds to provide evidence of Govt transactions

Guyana’s Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday challenged United States sanctioned businessman, Nazar Mohamed to provide evidence of transactions between his companies and the administration following the imposition of US sanctions.
On Wednesday, Nazar Mohamed in a news article claimed that despite the sanction from the United States of America, the Guyana Government has sustained some business ties with his family.
However, during his weekly press conference on Thursday, Dr Jagdeo outrightly denied such allegations and urged Mohamed to disclose the details of the alleged transactions.
“So, I will urge Mr. Nazar Mohammed to make public what these transactions were. I will urge him, since he has this information about three major business transactions that were done in the last year since US sanctions, he should release the information what this is about. Since we are all for transparency and well, when he releases them, then I’ll talk about that. So don’t let me tell you as yet. So, I’m hoping he would release them since we are all for transparency,” Jagdeo said.
The vice president also pushed back against any suggestion that wealth should afford special treatment under the laws of Guyana, and rejected the notion that the Mohameds should be exempt from scrutiny over tax-related issues, stating that all businesses must be held accountable.
“If you’re wealthy, you don’t have a privileged position in breaking the law, maybe they’ve grown accustomed to that but you don’t have a privilege position… there must be two laws for this country, one for the Mohameds, not whether you cheated the taxes but because it got exposed. Your son exposed it himself not the PPP but I (Nazar) must go to court and fit it. You must not pay your right taxes but everyone else on their vehicle must pay high taxes”.
“You think we can risk people’s future out of some perceived sense of loyalty to you and your son because somewhere in the past you claim you supported all political parties financially including the People’s Progressive party,” Jagdeo questioned.
In 2024, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) had announced that it sanctioned members of one of Guyana’s wealthiest families, Nazar Mohamed and his son, Azruddin Mohamed, several of their companies, and a Guyanese Government official, Mae Thomas, for their roles in alleged public corruption in Guyana.
According to a statement from OFAC, this is related to the evasion of taxes on gold exports noting that between 2019 and 2023, Mohamed’s Enterprise omitted more than 10 thousand kilograms (kg) of gold from import and export declarations and avoided paying more than $50 million in duty taxes to the Government of Guyana.
Subsequently, Nazar Mohamed resigned as a Councillor for the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) on one of the Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDC) while Thomas resigned from her post of Permanent Secretary and also as a member of the party.
As the Government awaits feedback from the US on the matter, Mohamed’s Enterprise Cambio licence was suspended while all Government agencies have stopped conducting business with the Mohameds and their related companies. Last week, the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) has announced that it did not renew cabotage permission for foreign flagged ships linked to Hadi’s World, one of the companies operated by the Mohammed’s, over United States (US) sanctions.
MARAD explained that this decision which effectively revokes previous permission granted to ships that provide services to the Mohammed’s enterprises, was made due to Mohammed’s sanction by Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).