State to pursue efforts to recover taxes owed by US-indicted Mohameds – Jagdeo

…as GRA withdraws tax-related charges against businessmen to facilitate extradition

The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) on Thursday withdrew all tax-related charges against United States (US)-indicted businessmen Nazar “Shell” Mohamed and Azruddin Mohamed, but the State still intends to recover the monies owed.

This assurance was given by Vice President (VP) Dr Bharrat Jagdeo during his press conference on Thursday, where he explained that the GRA’s withdrawal of the charges does not prevent the State from pursuing the matter in a civil court.
“You have to pay the taxes [owed],” Jagdeo emphasised, adding that this can be recovered either via civil proceedings or criminal proceedings, with the latter allowing for perpetrators to be criminally charged so that they can face jail time for tax evasion.
“So the withdrawal of the criminal aspect of it doesn’t preclude you from going after the money – the owed taxes – in a civil court. The civil remedy for the taxes [owed] is already being pursued. They got the demand notice for the $191 billion already. That’s calculated based on the penalties; that’s not going to stop,” Jagdeo stated.
In fact, this point was also expressed by Guyana’s Attorney General Anil Nandlall, SC, who noted in a Facebook post on Thursday that, “…extradition apart, the State of Guyana retains its full plenitude of legal powers to secure all taxes due, owing and payable, and intends to do so, in accordance with law.”

On Wednesday, the GRA had initiated charges against the Mohameds, principals of Mohamed’s Enterprise, at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts. The charges alleged that the duo understated $32.69 billion in taxable income from gold exports between 2020 and 2024.
The GRA filed the series of complaints after what is believed to have been a detailed audit into the gold export records of Mohamed’s Enterprise. Both Nazar and Azruddin were summoned to appear at the city court on Thursday to answer the charges.
However, when the matter was called up, the tax agency’s prosecutor informed the court that the Authority had decided to discontinue all proceedings against them. No further explanation for the withdrawal was provided.

Extradition request
In a subsequent statement, the GRA explained why it had withdrawn and wholly discontinued the matter. It noted that the charges were filed in October 2024, before the US Government had requested the extradition of Nazar and Azruddin.
The father and son have been indicted by a US Grand Jury sitting in the Southern District of Florida, which charged them with 11 offences, including wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, conspiracy, aiding and abetting, and customs-related violations connected to an alleged US$50 million gold export and tax evasion scheme.
Last week, the Guyana Government received a formal request from the US Government for the extradition of the two businessmen, who are also facing sanctions from the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) over allegations of tax evasion, trade-based money laundering, and gold smuggling.
Both Nazar and Azruddin were arrested last Friday and were subsequently placed on $150,000 bail each as the extradition proceedings continue at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts.
Consequently, GRA said in Thursday’s missive, “In light of this extradition request and the Government of Guyana’s decision to proceed with the said extradition request, and taking into account all relevant legal principles, including international comity, appropriateness and fairness, these charges were withdrawn and discontinued.”
In the Extradition Treaty between Guyana and the US, at Article 4, it states: “The extradition shall not take place if the person claimed has already been tried and discharged or punished or is still under trial in the territories of the High Contracting Party applied to for the crime or offence for which his extradition is demanded. If the person claimed should be under examination or under punishment in the territories of the High Contracting Party applied to for any other crime or offence, his extradition shall be deferred [*6] until the conclusion of the trial and the full execution of any punishment awarded to him.”

Delaying tactics and criminal activities
Meanwhile, with the extradition proceedings against the Mohameds set to continue next week, VP Jagdeo is confident that the businessmen will be held accountable – both in Guyana and the US.
“They don’t have to try this case in Guyana. That’s not the purpose before the Magistrate Court: to try the case in Guyana. That has to be tried in the United States. All the magistrate has to find is that the offence that they’re being charged for in the United States has a counterpart here… You have to face accountability for transnational crimes, and [the Mohameds] committed several in the United States based on their law, and they have a counterpart [offence] in Guyana for what he did here,” the VP stated.
In fact, Jagdeo went on to dismiss the claim by the Mohameds lawyer, Siand Dhurjon, that there is no counterpart to mail or wire fraud in Guyana. He argued that since the Mohameds are facing a conspiracy to commit money laundering charge, mail and wire fraud are means through which money laundering could be committed.
“They’re hoping to drag this out,” Jagdeo stated after Dhurjon had hinted to reporters about moving to the constitutional court to challenge the extradition. “They’re going to use blocking techniques to delay it all over the place by filing frivolous lawsuits everywhere… They know [the Mohameds will] be extradited…and they will be extradited because the offences are clear.”
Jagdeo also commented on the controversy surrounding the businessmen being granted bail pending the outcome of extradition proceedings – something he said is uncommon.
“People don’t get bail for that. You can imagine the world looking on Guyana and saying, ‘What is happening in that country…?’ This is a serious offence – extradition. And it was not [signed off] by a junior man in the United States. The United States’ Secretary of State [Marco Rubio] has signed the extradition document… He’s a member of the Cabinet in the United States of America… So, if they think this will go away just like that, it will not go away,” Jagdeo stressed.
Against this background, the VP declared that the Government needs to investigate local officials who may be compromising their duties for criminal networks. Jagdeo compared the Mohamed family’s activities in Guyana to Colombia’s era of Pablo Escobar, warning of parallels in corruption and criminal influence.
After the US sanctions were announced in June 2024, Azruddin formed a political party called We Invest in Nationhood, which won 16 seats in the National Assembly, and he is now a Member of Parliament.
Jagdeo reminded that Escobar, notoriously known as the “King of Cocaine”, was also elected to the Colombian Parliament.
“He became a Member of Parliament too. Pablo Escobar was one of the biggest drug dealers. They compromised the Judiciary and paid off people in the Judiciary. They paid off the Police; they paid people in the army…they owned sections of the media, and then in the executive too, they were bribing Ministers and other people in the other arms of the executive, so they became untouchable, and it was heading into a failed society,” Jagdeo outlined, urging Guyanese to examine the consequences of such a situation for Colombia, including kidnappings, bombings, and murders.
The VP said Guyana has to be careful not to replicate that culture here. He noted that the Government must ensure it cuts out any such linkages early, pointing out that such a culture leads to violence.
Jagdeo noted, “We need to have investigations done in the Gold Board, at GRA and within the [Guyana] Police Force to see those people who may be receiving money from this criminal enterprise, the Mohameds, and others, and compromising their work. We need to do that, and it must be institutionalised.”
In fact, during Thursday’s press conference, the VP posited that Police Commissioner Clifton Hicken must be held accountable after turning a blind eye to Azruddin arriving at Parliament on Monday in his controversial Lamborghini sports car, which had no licence plate and was uninsured – offences for which Guyanese are often charged.
According to the VP, such probes should not be limited to those agencies. For instance, he said the Judiciary should also be investigated.
“It’s harder there because that’s an independent branch of the Government, but we have to put in place safeguards in the Judiciary itself,” Jagdeo noted.
The media, he added too, should also be scrutinised as well as political operatives. In fact, Jagdeo said he is “convinced” some politicians in the APNU+AFC leadership “took money from the Mohameds”.
“I believe they bought APNU…That’s why APNU did not put up a resistance in the elections,” he said, referencing that party’s crushing defeat at the 2025 polls, which led to Mohamed’s newly-formed political party reducing the PNC/APNU into a minority opposition in the Parliament.
Nevertheless, Jagdeo made it clear that “we’re watching the people who are going to not perform their duty because they’re compromised. We’re watching them carefully.”