GRDB accountant nabbed in Canada

…to be extradited to face fraud charges

FORMER accountant of the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB), Peter Ramcharran, was on Tuesday arrested by the Toronto Fugitive Squad, authorities here have confirmed.
Ramcharran, who has been charged jointly with several other former top officials of the GRDB, had fled the jurisdiction prior to the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) instituting criminal charges. His arrest in Canada followed an extradition request which was made by the Guyana Government to their Canadian counterparts.

The Guyana Chronicle was told that Ramcharran will be subjected to a court hearing to determine the extradition request before he is sent back to Guyana. He is currently in police custody. Just recently, Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan issued an arrest warrant for Ramcharran, even as SOCU had made formal representation for him to be extradited to face the charges.
Head of SOCU, Assistant Commissioner Sydney James, had told the Guyana Chronicle that the arrest warrant was issued for Ramcharran on five counts of falsification of accounts. James had appeared before the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court to explain why an arrest warrant should be issued for the former accountant.

Ramcharran was responsible for ‘signing off’ on a number of questionable transactions that were traced to the six officials who were recently charged and others caught up in the GRDB probe. Last week, five charges of falsification of accounts were filed and sworn to in court by an investigating rank; however Ramcharran was not present in court, since he reportedly fled the jurisdiction to Canada during SOCU’s investigation. But SOCU’s Special Prosecutor Patrice Henry had explained to Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan that the accused was informed about the court proceedings and was ordered to be present in court.

The magistrate had adjourned the matter until June 5, 2017 at 13:15hrs and ordered that the Head of SOCU be present at the next hearing to satisfy the court why an arrest warrant should be issued for Ramcharran.
The allegation was made against Ramcharran during SOCU’s investigation in which six former GRDB officials were charged and released on $500,000 bail for failing to make a proper entry into a register of a company two week ago.

The six officials charged are former GRDB head, Madulall Ricky Ramraj; former General Manager Jagnarine Singh; former GRDB board members Dharamkumar Seeraj, Badrie Persaud, PPP Parliamentarian Nigel Dharamlall and former Deputy Permanent Secretary (Finance) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Prema Roopnarine. During SOCU’s investigation, Ramcharran was found to have falsified accounts at the GRBD of over $400M between the years 2011 to 2015, while being the accountant at the company.

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