President Irfaan Ali, while not denying that he did offer some assistance to businessman turned politician Azruddin Mohamed over four years ago with the Customs clearance of a luxury sports car, today said the invoice with the true value of the car was never presented to him.

In response to a video statement that was released by the businessman which showed purported text conversations with the President over the clearance of the vehicle, the President said Mr. Mohamed maintained a false claim about the cost of the vehicle.

“At no point did Azruddin Mohamed share with me the correct invoice indicating a value of US$695,000, which we now know is the accurate cost of the vehicle. Instead, he maintained the false claim that the vehicle was worth US$75,000—the same figure he presented to the Guyana Revenue Authority”, President Ali explained this morning.

Businessman Azruddin Mohamed, who recently announced his run for the Presidency, was charged last week for tax evasion and making false declarations to the Guyana Revenue Authority in relation to the importation of the luxury Lamborghini sports car in 2020.

In a video posted to his social media page this morning, Mohamed questioned why the Government was now reviewing documents in relation to the importation of the vehicle. He accused the President and Vice President of both being aware of the importation of the vehicle.

“When the car arrived, I forwarded that invoice to Irfaan (President) on December 8, 2020”, Mohamed said, while claiming that he is now being politically victimized following his decision to challenge the PPP in the upcoming elections.

“PPP has intensified its victimization against my family, and myself, a burden which resonates with many of us. Guyanese have long lived in fear of speaking up or challenging this corrupt regime for fear of victimization”, he said.

The text messages showed that just one month after the President took office, Mr. Mohamed reached out to him questioning whether if he were to pay $50 million in taxes for the importation of the vehicle, whether he would still face a “fight down” from the Commissioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority, Godfrey Statia. He said the President called him directly in response to that query.

Mohamed said he later sent a message to the President when he was able to clear the vehicle and pay the taxes on it in December 2020. He also showed a message that he said he sent to the President with the payment transfer documents showing the cost he claims he paid for the luxury vehicle.

Mohamed said he contacted the President again in January when he was blocked from having the car registered.

He complained to the President that he had sent the vehicle to be registered but that it was blocked by the GRA Commissioner General, adding that “Chief, Statia stress me and the old man out over the last 5 years and suck all the blood out of us when PNC was in power. First time I ever hear that the Commissioner General got to know when a vehicle registering”.

He said in response the President told him in a message that the issue would be dealt with. Mohamed said he later reminded the President about the intervention he was seeking, and received a message from the President indicating that the matter had been sorted.

Today, President Ali in a statement said Azruddin Mohamed lied about the cost of the vehicle.

“We are also now aware of not one, but a series of financial transfers made to the same company, verifying what was actually paid for the car. This is the matter before us. Did he lie about the value he presented as the purchased price of the vehicle? The answer is yes. As he again maintains in the video, the value is US$75,000, which we know is dishonest and factually incorrect. Based on the facts now presented by the US authorities, he did lie and presented a falsified invoice to the GRA. Did he ever present the true and correct value of the vehicle to me or the GRA? The answer is no, as he maintains in his recent video”, the President said in a statement posted on his Facebook page.

The video of the messages between the President and the businessman that was shared by the businessman, also showed several other conversations between the two, but those conversations were blurred by him.

The Guyana Revenue Authority wants Mohamed to pay the correct taxes on the imported luxury vehicle, claiming that he made false declarations about the cost when the vehicle was imported almost five years ago.

Azruddin Mohamed and his father, along with their businesses were sanctioned by the US Government last year over claims of tax evasion, undervaluing of gold exports and bribe payments. Government Permanent Secretary Mae Thomas was also sanctioned over her alleged involvement with the Mohameds in some of their alleged wrongdoings.

Earlier this year, following a request from Guyana, the US Government provided details of its probe of the sanctioned individuals, triggering local investigations.

The Mohameds once enjoyed close ties with the governing PPP with the father even serving as a PPP candidate at the last Local Government Elections. However, the close ties started to drift apart as the younger Mohamed started to showcase his political ambitions and the sanctions from the US were instituted. The Mohameds have continuously claimed no wrongdoing, while Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has described the family, as a “criminal cabal”.

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