-legal action looms

FOR the second time in five months, legal action could be brought against owner of the ‘Guyana Guardian’, Dennis Adonis, for “false and mischievous” content in that publication, which implicated the Natural Resources Ministry.

Guyana Guardian, of which little is known, boasts of being owned and operated by Dennis Adonis, a controversial figure in Guyana. The online publication, which is not recognised by the Guyana Press Association (GPA), carried an article on Tuesday, which implicated the Ministry of Natural Resources and subject Minister, Raphael Trotman in a corrupt transaction.

The article was carried under the headline, “$20 million dollar bribe allegedly pass to allow for the operation of a single oil and gas school”. In that article, Adonis alleged that an overseas oil and gas expert was being asked for $20M by the Natural Resources Minister to exclusively operate an oil and gas school here.
“…the Minister of Natural Resources himself was demanding $20 million Guyana dollars to exclusively operate an oil and gas school here. Hence he was only helping him out,” the Guyana Guardian article alleged.

However, the Ministry in a statement on Wednesday said it was in consultation with its legal department with a view to addressing the contents of the article since it is libelous and defamatory.

“We have been guided that the allegations contained therein are libelous and defamatory, in addition to being false and can potentially damage the image of the Ministry of Natural Resources and its Ministers and staff,” the statement read.

Subsequent to the discovery of this “falsehood,” the Ministry said that efforts were made to locate and identify the existence of persons named in the report, but these efforts proved futile. The article was reportedly written under a pseudonym; the name used was “David Gajadar”.

The Ministry said that it welcomes any opportunity to meet with either the writer or the owner of that online entity. Further, the government institution said that it takes “umbrage” at the “false and mischievous publication” of the article and repudiates the contents of this reportage as “false, baseless, groundless and bereft of an iota of truth.”

“We strongly believe that the report is meant to cause mischief and to divert attention from an operation calling itself ‘Guyana Oil and Gas Academy’. It is no mere coincidence that ‘Guyana Guardian’ shares a physical address with ‘Guyana Oil and Gas Academy’, which is 328 3rd Floor, Sharon’s Building, Charlotte and King Streets, Georgetown,” the statement pointed out.

According to a source close to the Ministry, Adonis might have been angered by an earlier statement from the Ministry, which warned about bogus oil and gas institutions in Guyana. Subsequently, Kaieteur News carried an article about the ‘Guyana Oil and Gas Academy’ which that publication said, was linked to Adonis. The Kaieteur News article also mentioned several fraudulent activities which Adonis had been involved in.

The source said that after realising the Kaieteur News article could be damaging to him, Adonis attempted to distance himself from the Oil and Gas Academy which the Guyana Guardian article claimed was owned by a friend of Adonis.

“In an attempt to distance himself from the academy, so that its credibility would not come into question, Adonis implicated the Ministry and the Minister in a corrupt transaction which was conceived only in his mind,” the source said.

Meanwhile, the Ministry is urging the public to be wary of any institution for which little information can be found, especially those purporting to offer oil and gas courses. It reminded citizens that the Education Ministry remains the sole accreditation authority for any academic institution seeking to offer courses in Guyana and persons are asked to register their interest there.

It was only last November that Adonis was slapped with a $500M lawsuit by Texila American University after the Guyana Guardian published a “defamatory” article about that university.

In 2010, he was charged with fraudulently converting $542,000 to his personal use after he had been entrusted with the money to purchase 100 modems.

Adonis had also collected money from the wider public a few years ago under the pretext that he was bringing professional wrestlers from the United States (US) to Guyana. That scheme collapsed after it was exposed by the media.

Other scams included the promised provision of a wireless communication service, the Royal Antigua money transfer service, which collected people’s money from overseas but failed to deliver in Guyana; and there were numerous so-called training schemes.