Former Head of the Guyana Gold Board GHK Lall today challenged the Government to call in the Guyana Police Force and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to investigate allegations of gold smuggling in Guyana.  

At a press conference, Mr. Lall rejected allegations leveled against him as malicious. He has made it clear that he is not opposed to calls for a full criminal investigation.  

“I absolutely agree with a full-fledged thorough investigation of what went on with this gold smuggling business, and all the related charges. I absolutely welcome an investigation of myself but I would not stop at the Guyana Police Force, I would also encourage the government for us to have the best in a thorough and credible investigation by inviting the FBI of America to participate in that investigation,” Lall said.

More than a year after they were sanctioned by the United States, billionaire businessmen, Azruddin Mohamed and Nazar Mohamed were indicted earlier this month by a US Grand jury on allegations of money laundering and fraud related to alleged gold under declaration.

Although Lall’s name was not featured in any of the Court documents, Social Media Commentator Mikhail Rodrigues aka ‘Guyanese Critic’ has accused Lall of aiding the Mohameds in the alleged gold smuggling operation during his time at the Gold Board.

Last week, Lall issued Rodrigues with a pre-action letter, demanding an apology. Today, Lall said he is preparing to initiate legal action  in the Court over the libelous statements made by Rodrigues.

He said the magnitude of the allegations warrant a thorough investigation.

Lall served as the head of the Guyana Gold Board from 2017 to 2020. He said the process of exporting gold involves four state entities – the Guyana Gold Board, the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) and the Guyana Police Force.

“You say you have gold to export, and you are a license gold dealer, you the dealer/exporter inform the Guyana Gold Board and the operations, senior folks review your documents and arrange with GRA Customs, the Guyana Police Narcotics Unit and CANU to go to the dealer’s premises, inspect, weigh, seal off and sign and the exporter takes it from there. From the indictment, the US officials are saying that the boxes and the seals used in the legitimate export, what pass through the Guyana Gold Board are then being reused by the alleged gold smugglers from Miami to Dubai and back,” he explained.

It is unclear, how the seals were reused without being detected by the authorities. Lall told reporters that while there were “rumors” of gold smuggling taking place, there was no hard evidence to support the claim.

“We heard about smuggling from different sources. We heard of it word of mouth in the yard. We heard about it from operations conducted by the Government, and what was heard is that there is smuggling going on, but as to the specifics of persons, groups that could have possibly been engaged in that crime, there wasn’t more coming to us about that,” the former Gold Board Head said.

According to him, the Mohameds did not surface in those “reports.” However, he said the Board at the time suspected that the gold was not being declared as required, and that there were leakages in the system.

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