Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister, Anil Nandlall is leading a high-level team to investigate the operations of a financial company that is reportedly running a “Ponzi scheme” here in Guyana and has collected millions of dollars from Guyanese.
Attorney General Anil Nandlall engaging in discussions with members of the high-level team established by Government to probe the “Ponzi scheme” in Guyana
This stemmed from dozens of complaints to the Government from members of the public about the financial outfit, located on the East Coast of Demerara.
The Guyana Securities Council (GSC) has written to President Dr Irfaan Ali, the Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo and the Commissioner of Police, informing them of the operations of this scheme in the country.
GSC described the agency, Accelerated Capital Firm Inc (ACFI), as a “pyramid or a Ponzi scheme” that has received hundreds of millions of dollars from thousands of Guyanese. In fact, it was noted that as much US$30 million could be involved in the scheme that affects some 17,000 Guyanese.
ACFI was established by Cuban National Yuri Garcia Dominguez and Ateeka Ishmael and has been operating in Guyana since 2018.
However, the GSC, after becoming aware of the operations, had issued public notices in October 2019 and January 2020, notifying the public that Accelerated Capital Firm (formerly “Accelerated Wealth Inc”) is not licensed by the Council to conduct securities business in Guyana or to solicit investments from the public.
As such, after the matter was brought to the attention of the Government, it has assembled a high-level team headed by AG Nandlall, and includes the Commissioner of Police, the Governor of the Central Bank, the Head of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and Head of the Guyana Securities Council.
In a statement on Thursday, the AG Chamber said that adopting a multi-sector approach, the team will immediately investigate the operations of ACFI, with a view, inter alia, of reimbursing monies to the persons who “invested” in the scheme.
Persons with relevant information are invited to assist in the investigations.
In its report, GSC noted that the business engaged in by ACFI violates several pieces of legislation across the fiscal regulatory architecture.
Under the Anti-Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism Act, it is required for all investors to provide the source of funds and ensure that the financial activities and money laundering risks associated with a customer are properly recorded.
But the Guyana Securities Council is not in receipt of that information from the application submitted by the agency in question.
Pursuant to Securities Industry Act 1998 and Regulations thereto, the Council had requested from ACFI detailed information and documents pertaining to its principals and the operations of the organisation. To date, the information has not been submitted and GSC said the application will not be processed unless the requisite supporting documents are submitted.
The GSC also wrote the company principal, Yuri Garcia Dominguez, to cease and desist from advising clients that the reason for non-payment to their clients is that the Council is in the process of granting a license to ACFI.
In fact, the GSC made it pellucid that it would have no choice than to apply the full force of its mandate to ACFI since the application dated August 5, 2020, has not been approved.
Thousands of Guyanese citizens have enrolled in the Ponzi scheme where ACFI claims that it uses a foreign exchange platform to trade and it seems that all aspects of the scheme operate online via training webinars, WhatsApp and emails. The methods of payment used to invest and trade are credit cards or by wire transfer.
Further, investigations have revealed that local banks have terminated the accounts of both Dominguez and Ishmael, and refused their request to open a corporate account as a result of their due diligence and the public notice by GSC in the print media.
Moreover, it was disclosed that the GSC had previously informed former Citizenship Minister Winston Felix and then Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan under the APNU/AFC Administration about the suspected illegal investment (pyramid scheme) after publications were seen in the newspapers giving notice that Dominguez had applied to the Minister of Citizenship for naturalisation in Guyana.
The notices invited persons who knew of any reason why naturalisation should not be granted to be sent to the Ministry of the Presidency.
However, the GSC indicated that it received no response to these correspondences from either coalition Ministers.
