The United States of America has a “mountain load of evidence” to support sanctions instituted against businessman Azruddin Mohammed and others, General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, reminded on Thursday.
Responding to questions during his weekly press conference at Freedom House, Jagdeo said: “We don’t have to agree with the US on the information they have, the information of the criminality of the Mohameds that they have exists independent of what we think or whether we agree with it or not.”
He reminded reporters of comments made by United States Ambassador to Guyana, Nicole Theriot that the US has “a mountain load of evidence to support the sanctions.”
Mohamed along with his father Nazar Mohamed and former government official Mae Thomas were sanctioned by US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for evasion of taxes on gold exports and corruption.
“Whether we agree with the evidence or not, they have it,” Jagdeo noted.
He recalled the Reuters report which was issued one year prior to the sanctions which stated that the Mohameds are being investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Homeland Security and other U.S. agencies, on suspicions of smuggling Colombian cocaine and illegally mined Venezuelan gold to the United States, Europe and the Middle East. The report added that the Mohameds were also suspected of laundering money for drug traffickers and criminals, including sanctioned Russian nationals operating in the region, according to one of the intelligence reports.
The PPP General Secretary who is also the Vice President said “it is not the People’s Progressive Party that accused the Mohameds of gold smuggling, drug trafficking from Colombia and laundering money to the Russian Mafia, it was the Reuters that did so.”
In relation to tax evasion relating to the Lamborghini owned by the Mohameds, he also reminded that it was Azruddin who posted the inaccurate invoice to social media sparking an investigation from the Guyana Revenue Authority.
Therefore, he said contrary to what is being pedaled, “we are not persecuting him.”
“He likes to claim that; he goes and lie around the country that the PPP sanctioned him. We did not sanction him but we are obligated once he is sanctioned.”
Several people associated with him have also lost their visas for associating with him, he added.
The VP said investigations by the Guyana Revenue Authority, the Financial Intelligence Unit and the Guyana Police Force must continue.
“They work in collaboration with the US Government, they have conversations, they share information, but I don’t want to get involved in that because he is now a political opponent. So they have to continue their investigation, but I am not going to ask about info about him,” he explained.
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