A former GRDB Accountant lawyer wants issues consolidated
– Make presentations on March 26
Former GRDB Accountant, Peter Ramcharran.
Kaieteur News – Attorney-in-Law, Nigel Hughes, representing former Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) Accountant Peter Ramcharran, is expected to make his presentation on March 26, 2021, for his client’s 17 fraud charges remaining to be combined.
The allegations leveled against him alleged he fraudulently converted and misused funds. The offenses occurred between January 1, 2011 and December 31, 2015, at GRDB headquarters at Lot 16-17 Cowan Street, Kingston, Georgetown.
On February 11, 2020, Ramcharran was convicted by Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan for omitting $ 145M from the ledger of the rice entity and sentenced to three years imprisonment. He is still facing 17 fraud charges before Chief Magistrate Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus at Georgetown Magistrates’ Court, who allegedly kept fraudulent accounts.
Ramcharran’s three-year conviction was one of the first major convictions for the Special Organized Crime Unit (SOCU), a branch of the Guyana Police Force, which instituted the charges against him. However, weeks after he was sentenced his lawyer filed an appeal against the conviction and Ramcharran was released on $ 2M High Court bail.
At the last hearing of the matter, Hughes sought consolidation of his client’s fraud charges, but a police prosecutor disagreed and asked for the allegations to be dealt with individually. As a result, the Chief Magistrate, Isaacs-Marcus, set March 26, 2021, for Hughes and the prosecution to make their submissions.
Kaieteur News had reported that Ramcharran, 40, of Coedverwagting, East Coast Demerara, had been slapped with 32 fraud charges. During 2019, he was extradited from Canada to face fraud allegations totaling $ 414M. All the allegations relate to his role in the GRDB.
The rice entity was responsible for operating a multi-billion dollar oil-for-rice big deal with neighboring Venezuela. That deal came to an abrupt end in 2015 from hostile Venezuela after the Coalition Government took office. The Board received its comment after a forensic examination of that entity revealed some of the “anomalies” found to be loans without proper paperwork or promissory notes. According to information, the former Accountant was heavily involved with the probe in respect of the six former GRDB Board members, who were also charged.
Between 2009 and 2015, Guyana, under the administration of the then People’s Party / Civic Progressive Party, committed to a multi-billion dollar oil-for-rice arrangement, where GRDB was clearing out to farmers. However, millions of dollars of that money were said to have been siphoned through third-party arrangements, including renting ships and other lovers’ bargains for a few milliners.
The officials, accused, are former General Manager of Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB,) Jagnarine Singh; former GRDB Deputy General Manager, Madanlall Ramraj; Secretary General of the Rice Producers Association (RPA), Dharamkumar Seeraj; former Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs, Nigel Dharamlall; former General Manager of Guyana Oil Company, Badrie Persaud and Deputy Permanent Secretary – Ministry of Agriculture Finance, Prema Roopnarine.