Former Chairman of the Guyana Gold Board, GHK Lall has issued a pre-action legal letter to Social Media Commentator, Mikhail Rodrigues commonly known as ‘Guyanese Critic’, demanding an apology over statements alleging that Lall helped Businessmen Azruddin Mohamed and his father, Nazar Mohamed smuggle gold out of Guyana.

Rodrigues has been given seven days to issue an apology and withdraw the “libelous” statements. His failure could result in Court action.

In an interview with News Source today, Mr. Lall said the statements peddled by Rodrigues do not have any truth, as he rubbished the allegations as baseless.

Lall said since Rodrigues’ utterances earlier this month, he has suffered public embarrassment, ridicule, and significant injury to his personal and professional reputation.

“For the man to say that GHK Lall was the Head of the Gold Board, that’s a factual statement from 2017 to 2020, then goes on, takes the liberty of saying, GHK Lall helped the Mohameds to gold. Now that’s a tremendous leap into the unknown. On what basis do you say this? What knowledge do you have that the US authority doesn’t have or the Guyana Government does not have? Who put you up to this and regardless of all these answers, the facts and circumstances of my tenure at the Gold Board shows very, very clearly I had a very rigid and disciplined approach to how I dealt with every customer of the Guyana Gold Board,” Lall said.

He said all business transactions were done at the Gold Board in the presence of senior officers.

“How do I engage in helping, participate in helping the Mohameds to smuggle gold, any kind, any quality of gold is beyond me. When the gold exportation process is happening away from the Guyana Gold Board, it involves four state entities simultaneously – the Guyana Gold Board representative, the GRA customs representative, and the CANU representative and the police narcotics representative. I have never been to one of these ceilings,” Lall said.

The Mohameds have been indicted by a grand jury in the US Southern Florida District to face charges of wire and mail fraud and money laundering. Most of the charges are related to gold exports to the United States by Mohamed’s Enterprises, which is owned by the two.

Through his lawyers at Christopher Ram and Associates, Lall indicated that the libelous statements were uttered by Rodrigues on October 6 and 7, 2025 during his appearance on his online programme “Progress Report with the Critic” and later on the Norman Brown VOD TV.

In the pre-action letter dated October 10, 2025, the Attorneys demanded “a clear, unqualified, and unconditional apology and retraction” in terms and form to be approved by Lall to be published in the Stabroek News, the Kaieteur News, and on the same broadcast medium and programme through which the defamatory statements were originally made.

Additionally, as a result of the gravity of the false allegations and the vast audience to which they were circulated, the Attorneys said Lall is entitled to substantial compensation and reasonable legal costs.

They warned that failure to comply with the demands will result in the former Gold Board Head instituting legal actions.

Lall said the issue is bigger than him.

“My lawyers have the fullest authority to take it from there. But let me emphasize that point, this is bigger than him; this is bigger than the libeler, the reviler, the defiler, this is bigger than me. This is what kind of standards do we have in this country? This is about the rule of law that Mr. Anil Nandlall, the Attorney General, loves to speak so much about. This is about misinformation and disinformation that the President highlighted that he’s going after in his inaugural address. This is about what standard should the honorable Vice President have when he is near to people of this kind of character, in that they go out and slander people and they are bosom companions of ranking people in the government. Our democracy is on trial here. Let me see how helping the Muhammad to smuggle gold does not amount to slander, malicious, slander, and libel. I want to see how all of this plays out here,” Lall said.

Rodrigues was also warned that his statements may expose him to criminal liability.

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