THE investigation into the attempted murder of Commissioner of Insurance and Judicial Manager of the embattled CLICO Insurance company, Maria van Beek, has come to a virtual standstill with no firm leads in sight and no suspects in custody.

Speaking with this newspaper yesterday, Commander of ‘A’ Division, Leroy Brummel, said that while various persons are being arrested and questioned in relation to the April 15 shooting, no firm suspects have been established.

When questioned about reports in another section of the media about the shooting act being linked to a prominent company in Guyana and the identity of the suspect being known to the police, Brummel declined to confirm this, although, and according to other media reports, Crime Chief Seelall Persaud had confirmed that persons connected to an insurance company are being questioned, and police knowledge about the shooter’s identity.

Repeated efforts by this newspaper to contact the Crime Chief have proved futile.

Meanwhile, there is still no progress on establishing a motive for the shooting nor discovering the weapon and the getaway vehicle used by the gunman and his accomplice, Brummel told this newspaper.

Late last month the van Beek family had pleaded with anyone with information that may lead to the arrest of the person(s) responsible to contact the Guyana Police Force.

The Judicial Manager, who is recovering from the single gunshot wound to her chest, was recently granted a further extension by Chief Justice (ag) Ian Chang to complete a report after a request was made by her attorney earlier this week.

The Insurance Commissioner was shot by a lone gunman as she was stuck in traffic in Lombard Street in the capital city, during a heavy downpour, while on her way to work.

The man escaped, after firing the shot through the driver’s window of van Beek’s vehicle, on a waiting motorcycle being driven by an accomplice. Both have since eluded capture.

After a brief hospitalization to have the bullet removed, van Beek was whisked away to her home outside of the city and has since been afforded police protection.

Two suspects who had been arrested by ranks shortly after the incident were later released after van Beek failed to recognise the shooter in a police identification parade. They are presently on station bail.

The Insurance Commissioner was appointed Judicial Manager of CLICO (Guyana) after the Bahamas branch was wound up in February last after a major collapse and it was discovered that more than half of the local company was invested in the Caribbean branch.

Following investigations launched by van Beek, she presented to the High Court that CLICO Guyana was insolvent, and its liabilities exceeded it assets by $11.9B.

Efforts to recover the invested money from the Bahamas branch are presently underway by the Guyana Government.