BUSINESS operatives, taxi drivers, beverage dealers, and even former employees continue to come forward with stories of being robbed by Trinidadian confidence trickster Daniel Ali, who, with Guyanese accomplice Steven Baboolall, is still on the run from the law.

An irate Jillian Moore, formerly employed by the Trinidadian as a cook while he operated a beverage garden and fast food restaurant at Uitvlugt Public Road, West Coast Demerara, yesterday contacted this publication to disclose that she had commenced working with Ali in April 2014, but had walked off the job at the end of July 2014 because of his dishonest attitude and his inability to pay her weekly wages for a three-week period.

She said he always kept telling her to ‘hold on’ as he sorted out his finances, and he refused to pay her the $30,000 he had owed her as wages for the three weeks she had worked with him.

Moore said Ali had asked her to borrow $40,000 from a friend of hers to enhance his business, and had entered into a written agreement to return the amount to the creditor with an additional $20,000 as interest, but that agreement had suffered the fate of all the other agreements he had made. As a result, Moore has been forced to pay the creditor, and is presently doing so in weekly portions.

Moore said that when she walked off the job in July, Ali had promised to bring her the amount he had owed her, but he turned up a few days later, begging her to return to the job, and had even promised to hike her wages. As expected, the woman refused his offer, and has since been unable to get Ali on his cellular phone, since it is always turned off and goes to voice mail. The last phone number the con man was using was 677-3191.

Ali currently owes his landlord (Mr. Bruce) over four months’ rent (amounting to almost $400,000) and has not made any effort to contact the man to settle his account.

The illegal exploits of Ali and Baboolall were discovered early last month when several car dealers from whom they had rented cars turned up at various police stations to report that they had neither returned the vehicles nor could be reached via their cellular phones. Swift action by the police had resulted in Baboolall being apprehended and placed in police custody, although he was later released on bail.
He has since not been seen, and has failed to return to the Leonora Police Station, where he was instructed to report on a weekly basis.

The duo is reportedly hiding out at a home in Canal No. 2 (West Bank Demerara), where they are allegedly being accommodated by an accomplice. Ali was reportedly staying at a guest house at Eccles, East Bank Demerara, but had managed to elude a patrol from the Brickdam Police Station by the time they arrived at the location.

Well placed sources has indicated that while the patrol failed to examine Room 102, in which Ali was staying with some friends, he was actually inside when they visited, and had paid the male security guard there to tell the police that he had vacated the premises.

The activities of Ali and Baboolall became noticeable when they moved into an apartment at Lot 57, Roraima Housing Scheme, West Bank Demerara, earlier this year and were observed spending lavishly and driving several expensive cars.

The queries of curious neighbours were met with explanations that the couple had come from Trinidad, was very wealthy, and was here to invest in a catering business.
When a strange man hanged himself in the yard of the very building they were renting, and police began to frequent the location, Ali and Baboolall hurriedly abandoned their apartment, and were soon after operating a catering business at Uitvlugt, West Coast Demerara.

While there, the landlord discovered several bogus ‘business cards’ they had printed which dictated that they were owners of a car rental instead of the food business they were operating. The landlord also discovered several receipts and contracts worded and signed by Baboolall, dictating sale of the vehicles they had rented and later sold. These items were turned over to the police to assist with their investigations.

Police are still investigating the matter.

(By Alex Wayne)