Dear Editor,

IT is rather ironic to see so many Guyanese embark on an apparent campaign by turning up to protest publicly to have the couple fingered in the alleged ACFI Ponzi scheme, reportedly located on the East Coast Demerara, released from police custody. And this being so, although hundreds of millions of dollars owned by their fellow Guyanese are at stake and possibly at risk of not ever being recovered.

Some 57 persons have made reports to police with claims amounting to over $31.5 million in investments, but further reports seem to indicate that approximately 17,000 Guyanese have invested a whopping US$20 million in the company. This is therefore no ordinary case and all efforts must be made to ensure the Guyanese people are protected against such scams, and those responsible must be brought to justice and made to face the full force of the law.

Ongoing investigations have revealed that the accused couple is apparently deliberately giving erroneous information regarding the overseas company’s name, under which they claim to have been operating. This is strong enough justification to prevent them from leaving Guyana, until there is verifiable information as to the whereabouts of the funds, as well as the return of those funds to the rightful owners.

It was reported that, at the time of the arrest, the Cuban national implicated in the scheme, Yuri Garcia Dominguez, told Police that the name of the overseas umbrella company under which they were operating was “FK Choice”, and that it was located in Belize.

As police and other members of the government appointed investigating team proceeded to conduct research into the company bearing the name “FK Choice”, it was revealed that no such company existed in Belize as claimed by Mr. Dominguez, nor does such a company exist elsewhere in the region or internationally.

Specifically, information obtained from reliable counterparts in Belize confirmed that no company bearing the name “FK Choice” was registered with the local or international Registry of Companies in that jurisdiction, as claimed by Mr. Dominguez, who is married to a Guyanese woman, Ateeka Ishmael.

However, cognisant that local investigations were revealing his falsehood, and further anticipating that this information would become public, Mr. Dominguez proceeded to send out a press release indicating the name of the overseas company was instead “FX Choice”, a name, which obviously bears close similarity to “FK Choice”, but for the letter ‘K’.

The apparent conclusion therefore is that when Mr. Dominguez began to realise that research would reveal that no such company with the name “FK Choice” existed, he proceeded on a misleading exercise to change the name to “FX Choice”.

The previous APNU+AFC Government had been made aware of the allegations, but had embarrassingly not taken any action before demitting office. The view is that had they moved decisively, it is highly unlikely the situation would have escalated so far as to ensnare thousands of citizens.

What became even more appalling was the denial of the former Minister of Citizenship, Winston Felix, of a letter alerting him of the illegal scheme, and that one of the operators had applied to become a Guyanese citizen.

In a now widely circulated letter dated October 24, 2019, the Legal Counsel for the Guyana Securities Council informed Mr. Felix about the scam, but he denied ever receiving it, only to be refuted when the letter was made public. No doubt therefore as to the reason why Mr. Felix has remained silent since the letter surfaced with a signature of receipt from someone at the ministry.

The letter, among other things, alerted Felix about two pyramid-like investment schemes, giving names of the two persons in the scam, their specific addresses on the East Coast Demerara, and the names of the companies being used.

Sadly, absolutely nothing was done with the information submitted, but thankfully, it was the new government, having received complaints from members of the public, convened a high level multi-agency investigating team involving the Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, the Commissioner of Police, the Governor of the Central Bank, the Head of the Financial Intelligence Unit and the Head of the Guyana Security Council.

One dictionary defines a Ponzi scheme as “a form of fraud in which belief in the success of a non-existent enterprise is fostered by the payment of quick returns to the first investors from money invested by later investors.”

At this stage, clearly there is hardly any hope of “quick returns” on the investments made, and one can only hope that at least there will be a quick return of the principal sums paid by thousands of Guyanese.

Rest assured that there will likely be many other similar attempts and the people of Guyana should therefore not let their guard down again. Thankfully, with a more alert and proactive government in place, there is good reason for greater hope that the people of Guyana will not fall prey to similar scams in future!

Yours sincerely,

Khoy Semple