…on allegations of conspiracy to defraud gov’t $174M
FORMER Housing Minister Irfaan Ali was on Wednesday slapped with 19 charges for alleged conspiracy to defraud the state of some $174M for his role in the notorious Pradoville land-sale scandal.
He appeared before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan and was released on self-bail, claiming that the charges “…have made me stronger.”
Ali, 38, of Sea-spray, Leonora, West Coast Demerara, was not required to plead to the indictable charges.

In court, members of People’s Progressive Party (PPP) such as parliamentarian Bishop Juan A. Edghill and former Prime Minister Sam Hinds among others came to show their support for Ali. The charges read that between the year 2010 and 2015, Ali conspired with persons unknown to defraud the Government of Guyana when he acted recklessly in presenting the value of 19 plots of state land situated at Plantation Sparendaam and Goedverwagting, East Coast Demerara and sold the said lands at a grossly undervalued price without first obtaining a valuation to determine the true value of the lands.

Ali is accused of defrauding the state of over $174M after selling the land at an undervalued price. The former minister of housing is accused of selling the lands to former President Bharrat Jagdeo; former Cabinet Secretary Dr. Roger Luncheon; and former ministers Priya Manickchand, Dr. Jennifer Westford, Robert Persaud and Clement Rohee; Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Shalimar Ali-Hack, and former army head Gary Best and Fortune Developers Inc., Guyana.

He also sold lands at the locations to former General Manager of the Guyana Gold Board and daughter of former President Donald Ramotar, Lisa Ramotar; former President of the Private Sector Commission, Ramesh Dookhoo; the son of former Labour Minister Dr Nanda Gopaul, Dr Ghansham Singh; former Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) Chief Executive Officer Rajendra Singh; former president of the Caribbean Development Bank, Compton Bourne; Andrew Bishop, former Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission; former Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Water Inc (GWI) Shaik Baksh, Safraaz Khan and George Hallaq.

Special Organised Crime Unit Prosecutor Patrice Henry made no objection to bail being granted to Ali. Ali is being represented by attorneys-at-law Anil Nandlall, Priya Manickchand, Jaya Manickchand, Sase Gunraj, and David Kissoon.
The attorneys argued for their client to be released on self-bail on the grounds that he does not pose a flight risk. Manickchand argued that the charges were trumped up and are political in nature; she added that sale of the lands was done in accordance with national policies.

Nandlall explained that the charges brought before the court against his client were “unique offences”, stating that his client did nothing criminal. Nevertheless, the chief magistrate released Ali on self-bail and adjourned the matter until January 7, 2019. “This has made me stronger, I’m more resolute, I’m standing on a stronger foundation,” Ali told the media after his release.
He stressed that as it relates to the charges, during his tenure as minister of housing and the help of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) government, he had distributed more than 100,000 house lots and regularised house lots with the policies.

Ali argued that he did nothing unlawful, but the 19 charges were brought against him because of the PPP-affiliated names listed. “This has made me stronger, I’m more resolute, and I’m standing on stronger foundation to fight this injustice… I have nothing to fear; I have served to the best of my ability”, the former minister said. “No form of wickedness, no form of political victimisation or pressure that the government believe that they can bring on us [PPP] to silence us the opposition that is [sic] exposing them ” he added.
The controversial Pradoville Two issue came to the fore when the coalition government commenced several investigations into suspicious financial transactions of state officials, that bordered or amounted to corrupt practices and/or abuse of office. It was found that several persons close to the last government had received prime seafront lands belonging to the state at extraordinarily low cost.

It was reported that the “Pradoville” recipients, the majority of whom held very high positions within private or state organisations, received and later built posh or luxury homes on the properties after paying as little as $114 per square foot; citizens, on the other hand, were being made to pay as much as $500 a square foot for ordinary land.
The “Pradoville” arrangement was made during PPP’s term of office, 2010-2015.

Jagdeo’s property is easily the largest plot of land with the biggest mansion, equipped with a pool and other amenities. The “Pradoville” Two matter became even more controversial when it was related that taxpayers’ money was used to develop the land and remove a transmitter belonging to the National Communications Network at a cost of around $100M to develop the scheme for the prominent persons going to live there.
There was even more controversy surrounding the seafront properties, since there was no advertising of the state lands and it appeared that all the recipients who got property were handpicked by the then government.

In September 2010, parcels of land each measuring 0.3030 of an acre were sold to Robert Persaud, Shaik Baksh, Clement Rohee, Lisa Ramotar, Dr. Compton Bourne and Priya Manickchand for GUY$1.5M.
Jagdeo purchased two acres for 9.8M and Jennifer Westford bought 0.3186 of an acre for GUY$1. 5; Ghansham Singh paid GUY$1,502,000 for 0.3005 of an acre. Andrew Bishop, Roger Luncheon, Rajendra Singh, Safraz Khan, and Ramesh Dookhoo each purchased 0.3005 of an acre for GUY$1.5M.

George Hallaq and Nada Hallaq each paid GUY$5 million for 0.8422 of an acre, and Future Developers International (Guyana) Inc., whose sole director is Dr. Rajendra Singh purchased 0.5534 of an acre for GUY$3 million.
The Director of Public Prosecutions Shalimar Hack paid GUY$1.4M for 0.2767 of an acre, and former Chief of staff of the Guyana Defence Force Gary Best paid GUY$1.5M for 0.3005 acre.

Earlier this year, former Finance Minister under the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) administration Dr. Ashni Singh; and former National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Winston Brassington were charged with five counts of misconduct in public office, contrary to the public law.
The charges related to the selling of state-owned land to Queens Atlantic, National Hardware Guyana Limited, Scady Business Corporation and Multi-Cinemas Guyana Inc.

One of the forensic audit reports on the operations of NICIL suggests that under the PPP administration, NICIL engaged in malpractices and had made poor decisions on behalf of the people of Guyana. The audit which was conducted by former Auditor General Anand Goolsarran had recommended criminal and/or disciplinary action against all those responsible for the interception of state revenues totalling $26.858B, in violation of the constitution. Goolsarran had said that several laws were broken.