See full press release from Police Headquarters:
Dorwin Bess, Marlon Gary Eleazar and Alex Wayne were charged in 2022 at the Vigilance Magistrate’s Court for two counts of Conspiracy to Commit a Felony, Contrary to Section 33 of the Criminal Law (Offences) Act, Chapter 8:01, committed on businessman Afras Mohamed.
In August 2023, Rickford Burke was also charged separately with the same offences since it was alleged that Dorwin Bess, Gary Eleazar, Alex Wayne and Rickford Burke conspired together to extort money from businessman Afras Mohamed.
Subsequently, Alex Wayne became a witness for the State, and the charges against him were dropped.
The trial in relation to Bess and Eleazar is ongoing in Court 1 at Vigilance Magistrate’s Court before Senior Magistrate Fabayo Azore.
Dorwin Bess (left) and Gary Eleazer (right)
Bess is being represented by Attorneys at Law Dexter Todd and Dawn Cush, while Gary Eleazar is being represented by Attorney at Law Dexter Todd. Earlier in the trial, Eleazar was being represented by Nigel Hughes and Associates, but that Law Firm abruptly withdrew its appearance on his behalf. Meanwhile, the case is being prosecuted by the Police Legal Advisor, Attorney at Law Mandel Moore.
During the trial, several witnesses testified on behalf of the Prosecution so far, but the most damning evidence against Bess, Eleazar and Burke came from the Prosecution’s main witness, Alex Wayne.
On the 20th June 2024, at the Vigilance Magistrates’ Court, Alex Wayne told the court that he knows Dorwin Bess because he once lived with Bess and worked for Bess, and he also knows Eleazar because they once worked together at Kaieteur News. This witness added that he also knows Rickford Burke through Dorwin Bess, that Bess told him that Burke is a former business partner and they are very good friends.
Wayne added that while employed with Bess, he (Dorwin Bess) introduced him to Rickford Burke via WhatsApp telephone call, and he knew it was Rickford Burke because during the telephone call, Burke introduced himself, and he is also familiar with Burke’s voice from hearing it on the GNN website.
Wayne further stated that Burke is the owner of the GNN website and he knows this because Dorwin Bess told him so.
This witness went on to state that in August 2022, he was working for Dorwin Bess and they were having a conversation during which Bess told him that he had instructed his right-hand business partner to receive $90 million in payment for fuel from Afras Mohamed.
He added that in the same month, Bess called him and told him to call Afras Mohamed and to pretend that he was a reporter from the GNN website and to tell Mohamed that he had an article which stated that “he (Afras Mohamed) was defrauding the government millions of dollars by evading the associated taxes surrounding his importing of vehicles through his affiliations with the PPP government” and the article will be posted in all the local newspapers and that he (Alex Wayne) would like a response to the article, then Dorwin Bess sent him the said article to his phone.
Alex Wayne further stated that he then contacted Afras Mohamed and told him what Dorwin Bess told him to say. He then sent the article to Afras Mohamed and advised him how to respond to it.
This witness further stated that on the 28th August, 2022, Bess called him and told him that the said article was posted on the GNN website and, shortly after that, Bess sent him a second article which stated that “BM Soat and Global Petroleum Inc was defrauding the government millions of dollars”. The witness said after he received the article he sent it to Afras Mohamed.
Wayne added that on the 10th September 2022, he met with Afras Mohamed and during their conversation, he called Gary Eleazar and during the phone conversation with Eleazar, he ( Eleazar) admitted to writing the said article, stating that Afras Mohamed was defrauding the government millions of dollars by evading the associated taxes surrounding his importing of vehicles through his affiliations with the PPP government. Eleazar said he sent the article to Dorwin Bess then Bess sent it to Rickford Burke.
Wayne admitted that he then took forty thousand dollars ($40,000) from Afras Mohamed as a down payment to have the article that was posted on the GNN website on Facebook to be removed and to prevent the second article from being published. This witness further stated that in the said month, he and Eleazar went to the business place of Afras Mohamed where he introduced Eleazar to Mohamed. The businessman then asked Eleazar how much he would take to remove the article from the GNN website, and they settled on one hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($150,000).
Mohamed then gave Eleazar fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) upfront and told Eleazar that he would give him the remaining one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) when the article was removed from the GNN website.
Eleazar then used his laptop and attempted to remove the article from the GNN website, but he could not log into the page. Eleazar then promised to go home and try again later.
Wayne added that he then asked Eleazar for ten thousand dollars ($10,000) from the fifty thousand dollars he collected from Afras Mohamed because that was his cut for removing the article that was posted on the GNN website and to prevent the other article from being published.
This witness stated that he, Dorwin Bess and Marlon Gary Eleazar tried to extort money from Afras Mohamed, and it was a threefold plan initiated by Dorwin Bess.
Bess had Eleazar write the article, after which Bess sent it to Rickford Burke for it to be posted on the GNN website. Alex Wayne was to pretend that he was a reporter so that he could approach Afras Mohamed. Under intense cross-examination, Alex Wayne maintained his story, and the matter was adjourned to September 13 for the continuation of cross-examination of this witness.
The post Police: Main Witness Ties Rickford Burke to Criminal Conspiracy in Extortion Case appeared first on News Room Guyana.
