Gold dealer executed outside Main Street night spot

Popular gold dealer and close associate of Roger Khan, Ricardo Fagundes, also called “Paper Shorts”, was on Sunday evening executed at a popular night spot on Main Street, Georgetown.

Fagundes, of Lot 25 Sandy Babb Street, Georgetown, was reportedly standing in front of the night spot when the shooter walked up to him and pumped several bullets into his body.
He reportedly dropped to the ground and died almost immediately. Guyana Times was told that after the shooting, the suspect fled the scene in a waiting motor car.
Fagundes is no stranger to the law. In 2017, Fagundes, who is a former employee of embattled gold dealer Saddiqi “Bobby” Rasul, was arrested by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) in massive money laundering scheme.
It was reported that during raids by SOCU, a number of vehicles were seized including a jet ski, three luxury motorbikes, cellphones and a large cache of ammunition.
The raids were conducted in light of the money laundering investigation that was launched against Rasul and alleged corruption with the Guyana Gold Board.
It was reported that the company, R Mining Inc made several transactions with the Gold Board – R Mining Inc and SSS Minerals Trading Enterprises.
SSS Minerals Trading Enterprises is licensed to buy gold from miners and sell to the Gold Board, but based on records at hand, the bulk of the gold sold was from R Mining, which was only supposed to be engaged in mining activities.
It was also reported that by using R Mining Inc, Rasul was exempted from paying taxes amounting to some $100 million for the months the transactions were done. This is according to sources from the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).
It was further reported that during the transaction period (September-November), Rasul’s companies sold 31,790 ounces of gold to the Gold Board, valued $7.67 billion.
After the revelation, the Natural Resources Ministry has ordered an investigation into the members of the new Board of Directors of the Gold Board.
Rasul had reportedly robbed and conned several gold dealers of hundreds of millions of dollars.
He presently has several lawsuits pending from clients that he took money from to purchase gold, but instead, fraudulently converted it to his own use.
One of the biggest frauds, however, was in relation to him collecting $956 million from a local bank after depositing six bounced cheques between March 21 and 24, 2017 in the amounts of $290 million, $96 million, $138 million, $89 million, $298 million, and $45 million.