Over a month after Chinese businessman Su Zhi Rong was broadcast by VICE News attempting to implicate Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo in his schemes by claiming to act as his middleman in securing investments, Jagdeo has slapped the businessman with an over-$50 million lawsuit.
Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo
According to the Statement of Claim, Zhi Rong made false and slanderous statements about the claimant, Jagdeo. The Statement of Claim also contains transcripts from interviews Su Zhi Rong had with the VICE News correspondent, Isobel Yeung and a Mr Chan.
In these conversations, the businessman presented himself as the middleman between Jagdeo and potential investors, while at the same time soliciting cash from the undercover VICE News agents. According to the court filing, Su Zhi Rong’s utterances gave the impression that the claimant accepts money to render assistance to investors and that Zhi Rong was his broker to negotiate such underhand deals.
Chinese businessman Su Zhi Rong
“The statements made, expressed and uttered by the defendant in the visual and audio recorded conversations and/or discussions and/or interviews between Isobel Yeung and the person referred to as Mr. Chan clearly imputed criminal and unlawful conduct on the part of the claimant and the said words were calculated to disparage the defendant personally and, in the office, he held,” Jagdeo’s Statement of Claim states.
“The defendant at the time of making the slanderous and defamatory statements of the claimant acted in a reckless and indifferent manner as regards the possibility of the statements being recorded and/or repeated and/or published to others.”
In the proceedings filed by Jadgeo, he is claiming damages in excess of $50 million for the slanderous and defamatory statements made, expressed and uttered by Su Zhi Rong in a series of recorded conversations and/or discussions and/or interviews held sometime on or about the month of January, 2022 in Guyana.
These recorded conversations and/or discussions and/or interviews were aired, broadcast and published by VICE News on or about the June 19, 2022, and again on or about July 7, 2022, on American television channel, Showtime, social media platform, YouTube, and other media platforms under the title, “Guyana For Sale” and “Undercover in Guyana: Exposing Chinese Business in South America”.
Jagdeo is also claiming aggravated and/or exemplary damages; an injunction restraining the Su Zhi Rong whether by himself, his servants, or agents or otherwise, from further publishing or causing to be published the said or similar words defamatory of the claimant; costs; interest on all sums awarded at the rate of 6 per cent per annum from the date of judgement until fully paid; and such further or other orders as the court deems just and convenient. Jagdeo is being represented by Attorney-at-Law Manoj Narayan.
Su Zhi Rong is a businessman and a national of the People’s Republic of China. He is also a citizen of Guyana by naturalisation, of Lot A, Block 2 Public Road, Land of Canaan, East Bank Demerara.
Accusations
The full interview was aired February 5 following the two-hour interview with Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo by a journalist of VICE Media Group, which was conducted on February 1, 2022.
In the interview aired by Showtime television network, Su Zhi Rong, who operates in Guyana, claimed to be close friends with Guyana’s Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo.
In the same breath, however, he also made clear in the undercover interview that Jagdeo does not take bribes. In the preview released ahead of the full airing, Su Zhi Rong is also heard referring to Jagdeo saying, “his hands are very clean.”
At no point in the full recording of the episode did VICE News present any evidence of wrongdoing or corruption on Jagdeo’s part. In the full recording, however, Su Zhi Rong was recorded using Jagdeo’s name in trying to negotiate a payment from the undercover VICE operator posing as a Chinese investor.
When the Vice President was visited at his house by Su Zhi Rong and the undercover VICE crew (the journalist posed as the secretary of the undercover investor), Jagdeo in the secretly recorded conversation did specify that he can assist with investment deals but made it clear that he will not get involved in any financial dealings.
“No no, I’m not getting involved with business… my thing is that I’m in Government. So, I assist from the Government side. That’s it,” Jagdeo said, after which Su Zhi Rong spoke to the Chinese ‘investor’ in Mandarin to further solicit the bribe, so that the Vice President could not realise that he was being used.
Persons falsely using Jagdeo’s name to solicit money from investors is nothing new and in fact Jagdeo had cause to publicly warn investors during a press conference earlier this year, not to fall for this scam.
During his press conference, Jagdeo had given a recent example of someone being arrested at Office of the President, for this very offence. The Vice President recalled that the man, who was a complete stranger to him, took a photo next to him and then later used this photo to collect money from companies on the false promise that he knew Jagdeo and could act as a liaison between them and the Vice President.
“He then showed up here, because my secretary called and arranged a meeting. He showed up with another person he was conning, bringing to the meeting. And he was arrested right here,” Jagdeo had said.
“So, this is going on, it has become almost like an industry, where people claim they are representing companies and I don’t know what they are representing to these people. So, if anyone is stupid enough to lose your money by thinking you will get any preferences, because someone arranged a meeting with some policymaker, it’s your loss,” Jagdeo had said. (G3)
