Gaming Authority in ‘violent flagrant breach’ of confidentiality

…turns over private financial information to AG, State media

Former Attorney General Anil Nandlall, in a strongly worded missive over the weekend, railed against the Guyana Gaming Authority for its flagrant breach of confidentiality — an obligation it was supposed to uphold when financial information regarding his client, Clifton Bacchus of Sleepin Hotel,’ was leaked and made public.
Nandlall, in a ‘lawyer’s letter sent on Friday last to the Gaming Authority, demanded an explanation as to how the State media and the Attorney General came into possession of the private, confidential financial information for Sleepin’s owners, Bacchus and other investors.
In a copy of the letter seen by Guyana Times, Nandlall, who has been retained as legal counsel by Bacchus, Yokohoma Trading (Guyana) Inc. and Pasha Global Inc, reported of receiving, on Friday last, affidavits filed by the Attorney General which included as attachments the completed applications for a casino licence for the Sleepin Hotel.
Nandlall, in his missive to Gaming Authority Chairman Roysdale Forde, said, “In the circumstances, I hereby request an explanation from the Gaming Authority on how this reckless, negligent and unauthorised disclosure of my client’s personal confidential information was made to the Editor of the Guyana Chronicle, the Guyana National Newspapers Limited, and the Attorney General.”
The former Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs has since noted that this private, confidential financial information has since been filed at the Supreme Court Registry, and the documents have therefore now become public documents, accessible to the world.
“Quite apart from the fact that these applications for casino licences are wholly irrelevant to the proceedings, and the affidavits to which they are attached do not explain their relevance, their attachment is an expression of manifest professional incompetence on the part of those who have done so; my clients’ greater concern is how these applications, along with their personal confidential financial information, have reached the hands of the Editor of the Guyana Chronicle, the Guyana National Newspapers Limited, and the Attorney-General.”
Nandlall is adamant that the action on the part of the Gaming Authority “appears to constitute a violent and flagrant breach of the confidentiality which the Gaming Authority owes to my clients to protect and secure personal confidential financial information supplied to it”.
The Sleepin owners had, in April last, applied to the Gaming Authority for certain casino licences, but were denied. The reason proffered for the denial was that the applications did not contain all the requisite information, which led to a similar application being re-submitted on Wednesday last. It is the confidential financial information which has been submitted along with these applications which the Gaming Authority is being accused of leaking to the state media and Attorney General Basil Williams.
Nandlall was, on Friday last, served with the legal paperwork from Williams, which he noted had attached the confidential financial information, now made public records.
The former Attorney General, in his missive to the Gaming Authority Chairman, noted: “I have no doubt that you appreciate that these applications contain volumes of personal confidential financial information of my clients and others who have invested in the venture, and therefore, a lawful obligation devolves upon the Gaming Authority to ensure that this information is secured and kept with the highest degree of confidentiality.”
Nandlall also reminded: “I have instituted legal proceedings for libel on behalf of Clifton Bacchus, Yokohoma Trading (Guyana) Inc., and Pasha Global Inc. against the Guyana National Newspapers Inc. and the Editor of the Guyana Chronicle…Those proceedings are pending in the High Court.”
Nandlall, in speaking to this publication over the “troubling development”, observed that already the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) regularly publically divulges personal confidential financial information of persons who are under investigation.
Such disclosures are prohibited under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Act.
He also said, “We have also witnessed top officials of SARU (regularly making) public disclosures of a highly prejudicial nature of persons (whom) they say they intend to investigate; and in the process, divulging all sorts of personal confidential financial information about these persons.” According to Nandlall, “Now we have cold, hard evidence of the same transgressions occurring at the Gaming Authority… Every citizen of this country must find this deeply troubling. Which investor (would) want to invest in a country where their personal confidential financial information is not secure?”
He told Guyana Times, “That the Attorney General, the principal legal advisor to the Government, is the perpetrator of this serious infraction is a shocking demonstration that, even at the highest level of Government, there appears to be an inability to differentiate between basic right and wrong… The professional incompetence, negligence and recklessness showcased here are simply unparalleled.”
Speaking to the questionable practices being employed, Nandlall said, “We have seen a series of controversial legislation (being) passed in the National Assembly despite vehement public criticisms, which allow for the Guyana Revenue Authority to invade persons’ bank accounts without any notice to them; that authorize the Guyana Revenue Authority to seize monies in persons bank accounts without a court order and without affording them a hearing, if the Commissioner-General adjudges that they owe taxes; that empowers the Commissioner-General to prevent persons from leaving the country without an order of court, and again without hearing them, if he adjudges that they owe VAT.”