The Guyana Revenue Authority today announced that it has fired a manager and a number of employees and has also initiated action against them and Opposition Leader, Azruddin Mohamed, over the transfer of number of vehicles belonging to Mohamed, who remains under US sanctions.

In a statement today, the GRA said it has been able to establish some level of conspiracy between its employees and Mohamed to transfer a number of vehicles in breach of section 3(1)(a) of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Act and established procedures.

The GRA said despite knowing that Mr. Mohamed has been sanctioned and indicted in the US on allegations of mail and wire fraud and tax evasion, certain employees appear to have acted in concert to transfer the motor vehicles from his name to other individuals, in a manner contrary to statute and established procedures.

GRA said the services of the said employees of the Authority, together with their Manager have been terminated.

According to the GRA, the anti-money laundering Act is clear and the actions of the employees amounted to a clear breach of the Act.

The GRA stated that the Act states that “A person commits the offence of money laundering if he knowingly or having reasonable grounds to believe that any property in whole or in part directly or indirectly represents any person’s proceeds of crime – converts or transfer property knowing or having reason to believe that property is the proceeds of crime, with the aim of concealing or disguising the illicit origin of that property.”

Moreover, Section 3(4) of the said act explicitly states that “For the purposes of this Act, it is not necessary for any person to be convicted of a serious offence to prove that property is the proceeds of crime.”

Earlier this month, Mr. Mohamed confirmed that he sold and transferred 11 vehicles to third-parties, but he claims that the transactions were all legitimate as he pushed back against an investigation by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).

Mr. Mohamed explained that the vehicles that were transferred were not luxury vehicles, but were all third-hand vehicles which were registered in Guyana – some as long ago as 12 years.

The vehicles included a Toyota Allion, Toyota Fielder, Toyota Land Cruiser, and Toyota Crown.

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