THE charges against Former Director of the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Inc., Carvil Duncan was on Thursday dismissed after Senior Magistrate, Fabayo Azore found that there was insufficient evidence.

Duncan was joyful as he made his way out of court as the $27.7 million fraud matters against him were dismissed. Magistrate Azore in her ruling stated that there was not sufficient evidence to convict Duncan of the offence and the prosecution has failed to prove the element of the offence.

She also noted that the transaction was not illegal since Duncan was authorised to do so and as such the prosecution failed to prove that the act was unlawful. The particulars of the charge stated that Duncan had conspired with former Deputy Chief Executive Officer (DCEO), Aerswar Deonarine to commit a felony – that is to say between May 7 and 8 at Georgetown he conspired to steal GYD$27,757,500, property of GPL.

He was represented by Attorneys-at-law, Glenn Hanoman and Everton Singh-Lammy. Duncan, a former director of GPL, was charged jointly with Deonarine for the unapproved transfer of approximately $27M to their personal bank accounts from the PetroCaribe fund. The government had asked the police to investigate Duncan and Deonarine and it was reported that the men paid themselves without authorisation.

The discoveries of the suspicious transfers were made by independent auditors who were probing an account which held proceeds of oil shipments taken from Venezuela. It was while tracking payments to GPL that auditors unearthed the strange transactions.
Police had issued an arrest warrant for Deonarine who fled the country just after he was placed on leave. He had promised to return all of the money, but has failed to do so. He has also failed to return to Guyana to face the courts.

After the case was dismissed, Duncan’s lawyer said that he was pleased with the way the court handled the matter. In the year of 2016 Duncan, was also charged with conspiracy to steal $984,900 from GPL but the case was dismissed by Magistrate Leron Daly after the prosecution failed to provide sufficient evidence.