Refunds to thousands of Guyanese who have invested millions of dollars in an alleged Ponzi scheme have come to an unexpected halt following a Police raid on the homes of the principals of Accelerated Capital Firm Inc (ACFI), Cuban national Yuri Garcia-Dominguez and his wife, Ateeka Ishmael.
Yuri Garcia-Dominguez (left) and his lawyer, Dexter Todd
This is according to the couple’s lawyer, Dexter Todd, who during a press conference on Thursday said that ranks from the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) – an arm of the Guyana Police Force – swooped down on his clients’ home at Coldingen, East Coast Demerara (ECD) on Wednesday in search of monies.
Todd informed that the ranks had a warrant to search and seize monies, devices, and financial documents that would assist in their money-laundering investigations. According to the lawyer, no monies were found, and instead, Police ranks seized several borrowed computers, cellphones and personal documents, including birth, marriage and Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) certificates.
ACFI had made a commitment to begin reimbursing investors from Monday, October 12, 2020. Those payments continued into Tuesday, October 13, 2020 with only 27 investors being refunded to date. But Todd explained that the repayment process was now at a standstill as a result of the Police’s raid.
Todd informed: “The effect of the [search] is that the company is now not in a position to continue any forms of repayments to their clients. So those persons who have invested, they will now have to hold on until this matter is cleared up whether it be through the civil court or further interventions with the Police department.
“And when those items are returned, then they [his clients] will be in a position to continue the payments to the thousands of investors who are requiring their monies. When I say the materials are gone, I mean the phones, the laptops… the codes to withdraw the bitcoins and to transfer the bitcoins into dollars,” Todd continued.
Todd further informed investors of ACFI that this was not his clients’ fault, but that of agents of the State who have insisted on harassing the couple and abusing their power. The lawyer related that he was currently advising his clients and there was a possibility that civil rights proceedings would be instituted against the Police Force as the actions of its ranks were uncalled for.
He noted that Police ranks searched his clients’ home for two hours and during the process, he was unable to speak with them although they requested their lawyer as is their constitutional right. “The actions of SOCU were uncalled for. It was unprofessional and all it did was interrupt the repayment of monies to investors,” Todd stated.
According to Todd, the couple have every intention of repaying investors since some of them are in desperate need of their monies in light of the COVID-19 situation. He added that Garcia-Dominguez and his wife have always been transparent and cooperative with Police investigations.
Meanwhile, speaking at the press conference, Garcia-Dominguez denied being involved in money laundering activities and insisted that his company only traded on the stock markets which are legal all over the world. He admitted that the only offence he has committed was operating without a licence from the Guyana Securities Council and said that he was prepared to face the consequences in that regard.
Garcia-Dominguez revealed that apart from facing 70-plus charges for obtaining monies under false pretence, he and his wife have also been charged in relation to operating without a licence and running a pyramid scheme.
ACFI has since ceased all its operations in Guyana.
“For some reason, the SOCU department believe that we have millions of dollars hidden somewhere else. We had the opportunity to show the funds are out there [and] not in Guyana. Everything that is happening does not make sense,” added Garcia-Dominguez, who claimed that a number of threatening phone calls have been made to his family.
On behalf of his clients, Todd has filed judicial review proceedings in the High Court, asking that all charges and investigations against them be discontinued immediately.
The case comes up for a case management conference on Wednesday, November 4, 2020 before acting Chief Justice Roxane George. In the meantime, the couple have been released on over $30 million bail with instructions to lodge their passports and report to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Headquarters.
