Kaieteur News Publisher
GLENN LALL
–    has a ‘SKETCHY PAST’
–    rumoured involvement in ‘ALIEN SMUGGLING’
–     links to the ‘UNDERWORLD’
–    describes Kaieteur News as ‘MUCKRAKING’ newspaper
AN explosive Wikileaks cable has named Kaieteur News publisher Glenn Lall as a person with a “sketchy past” involved in “alien smuggling” and “links to the underworld”.

“He translated a shoe trading business and rumoured involvement with alien smuggling into a muckraking independent newspaper. He has his finger on the pulse of Guyana’s underworld, which serves his media enterprise well,” the cable said.

Political Officer in the US Embassy in Georgetown, Benjamin Canavan, spoke with Glenn Lall prior to the writing of the cable.

According to the declassified cable, Lall said that Omprakash ‘Buddy’ Shivraj ran into financial difficulties, which threatened to halt progress on his hotel project back then.

“Shivraj is a Guyanese businessman widely acknowledged to be involved with local narco-traffickers, at a minimum laundering their money. His main business venture appears to be a five-storey bar/nightclub/restaurant/gym (predictably named “Buddy’s”) in Georgetown,”  Canavan said in the cable.

According to the US embassy official,  Lall said Shivraj has tried unsuccessfully to tap local narco-criminals to obtain additional funds to complete the hotel’s construction.

“The five-storey concrete frame went up quickly in early 2006, but it still needs major interior and exterior work. Shivraj obtained neither bank financing nor the required permits for the hotel’s construction,” the cable claimed.

“Failure to complete the hotel by then would surely render it financially unviable,” the cable said.