CHIEF Justice, Roxanne George-Wiltshire has approved a production order that will cause the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI) to hand over financial documents to the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU).

The order which was granted on Tuesday involves documents regarding transactions made during the 2007 Cricket World Cup activities held here. Head of SOCU, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Sydney James, confirmed to the Guyana Chronicle that the agency had received the go-ahead from the court and will be taking the necessary steps to move their investigations forward.
James said that SOCU had applied to the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court to have the bank hand over the necessary documents relating to the investigation, but that request was met with a legal challenge.

He noted however that the chief justice has now approved the application for the production order in favour of SOCU. “This will help our work regarding the Cricket World Cup activities,” James highlighted.
In December, Chief Justice George-Wiltshire had temporarily stopped SOCU from requesting the documents from GBTI, a privately owned financial institution. Chief Magistrate Ann Mc Lennan had granted the initial order to have the bank release the information regarding the cricket activities. She granted SOCU permission to accept and inspect statements of accounts, withdrawals, deposit slips, loans and other relevant transactions at the bank.
While GBTI should have handed over the documents to the agency in early December last, the bank argued that its lawyers had advised that the order by the chief magistrate was unlawful, void, of no legal effect and should therefore be quashed. The bank went on to say that the chief magistrate did not have the power to make the order and that SOCU had not properly filed its court case.

SOCU had told the Guyana Chronicle that investigations are being conducted into the CWC matter since millions of dollars could not be accounted for. The bank documents regarding financial transactions would aid SOCU in tracking the money. Apart from the unaccounted sums, a contract regarding the purchase of high-end BMW motorcars is also involved, since those cars which were bought at the time for cricket officials were reportedly placed in the hands of close associates of the former administration.
Officials of the GBTI are currently before the court in a contempt case.

On this occasion, the bank failed to comply with a court order that required it to submit financial information in another investigation. The bank was asked about the accounts of several former Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) members, which information they refused to give. The GRDB investigations involve some US$500M. Sums reportedly paid between 2010 and 2015 from the Petro Caribe arrangement with Venezuela.
People’s Progressive Party MPs Dharamkumar Seeraj and Nigel Dharamlall, GRDB former Deputy General Manager, Ricky Ramraj, former General Manager Jagnarine Singh and former GRDB board members Badrie Persaud and Prema Roopnarine appeared before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan to answer to the charges when the matter was first called last May.