Extradition battle over ex-GRDB accountant continues

THE battle for the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) to have former accountant of the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) Peter Ramcharran be brought before the court in Guyana and answer to a $400M fraud charge, continues.
Ramcharran was responsible for ‘signing off’ on a number of questionable transactions that were traced to the six officials who were recently charged and others caught up in the GRDB probe.

The matter was recalled before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, when it was disclosed by SOCU special prosecutor Patrice Henry that Ramcharran was not yet arrested in Canada and brought back to Guyana.

However in Canada, Ramcharran is challenging the extradition in courts, the prosecutor noted.

In June 2017, five charges of falsification of accounts were filed and sworn to in court by an investigating rank. However, Ramcharran was not present in court, since he reportedly fled the jurisdiction to Canada during SOCU’s investigation.

The allegation was made against Ramcharran during SOCU’s investigation in which six former GRDB officials were charged and released on $500,000 bail each for failing to make a proper entry into a register of a company.

The six officials charged are former GRDB head, Madulall Ricky Ramraj; former General Manager Jagnarine Singh; former GRDB board members Dharamkumar Seeraj; Badrie Persaud; PPP Parliamentarian Nigel Dharamlall and former Deputy Permanent Secretary (Finance) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Prema Roopnarine. They are currently on trial before Senior Magistrate Leron Daly for this matter.
During SOCU’s investigation, Ramcharran is accused of falsifying accounts at the GRBD of over $400M between the years of 2011 to 2015 while being the accountant at the company.

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