-Court also awards State interest, cost
Chief Justice Roxane George has ordered Royal Investments Inc (RI), which owns and operates Guyana Stores Limited to pay the remaining US $ 2M balance to the State for the sale of the business entity.
In June 2004, National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) initiated legal action against RI to recover the amount owed plus interest. The matter was first filed in 2006, and, after some delay, the hearing began in late 2010.
On December 17, the judgment was passed in the High Court by the Chief Justice who awarded an award to NICIL in the amount of US $ 2M or its equivalent in Guyana dollars.
The court also ordered that interest be paid as claimed on the said amount of US $ 2M or its equivalent from 1 October 2001 until fully paid. The Chief Justice also dismissed a counterclaim from RI and ordered them to pay NICIL the $ 5,000,000 cost.
The Chief Justice in her judgment referred to Mohammed Yassin, CEO of Guyana Stores Limited and not being honest about his involvement with RI.
“I discovered that Mr. [Mohammed] Yassin tried to portray himself as a naive businessman. And yet, he was dealing with a $ 6 million US transaction, an insignificant amount of money in circumstances where the evidence reveals that his company was part of the consortium that was part of a participating RI from the initial negotiations for the purchase of the shares. Mr Yassin tried to depart from the fact that he was always part of RI and I see that this is the fault of RI, ”he said.