–gov’t mulls foreign partnership to address this issue; penalties to become stricter for such illegal operations, Vice-President Jagdeo says
–local authorities write US officials for all information related to recent matter

IN keeping with efforts to crack down on the illegal act of gold smuggling, Vice-President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo has said that the system will be strengthened to mitigate and deter such actions
The smuggling of Guyana’s gold is not a new issue, but one that successive governments have been ‘battling’ for years. However, this current administration is attempting to tighten loose ends by instituting and strengthening a series of penalties and sanctions to deal with gold smugglers.
Despite attempts in some quarters to portray this illegal act as a political issue, the Vice-President, during his press conference on Thursday, said that the government will investigate the claims by the United States (US) Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) against three Guyanese nationals.

On Tuesday, the OFAC sanctioned father and son, Nazar Mohamed and Azruddin Mohamed, respectively, their companies, and Permanent Secretary (PS) of the Ministry of Labour (MoL) Mae Thomas for their alleged roles in public corruption.
Within the last few months, Dr. Jagdeo has outlined the government’s robust stance when it comes to tackling illicit gold operations, which pose a threat to the nation’s economy.
He again addressed this issue extensively, and debunked the rumour mills which are undermining the seriousness of it.
Since the OFAC issued the statement, Thomas has been sent on leave and according to Dr. Jagdeo, the government has indicated to US authorities that it will be seeking information to aid local investigation, and, depending on the outcome of the investigation, pursue prosecution or the collection of the evaded taxes.

“A government can’t work like a social media commentator. It has to be deliberate, serious and it has to work in a framework particularly in this case, where the action against the identified individuals will depend largely on the evidence that we’ve received from the United States of America,” he said.
Further, the Vice-President related that there is no witch hunting of these alleged wrongdoers or protection of them. However, those who break the law will face the full consequences.
“Therefore, if the Mohameds break the law, they will face the consequences. But they have, as Guyanese citizens, a right to due process like any other citizen and, therefore, we are not engaging in all of these social media posts, responding to them,” Dr Jagdeo said.
He added: “We intend to fully investigate the matter. We intend to prosecute those who break the law. We will work in full partnership with the US government. We value that partnership. Since this government has taken office, we have strengthened our partnership in the defence sector, in the law enforcement sector, in the narcotics fighting sector…”

Additionally, Dr Jagdeo said that the Bank of Guyana (BoG) and the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) has been tasked with preparing a report on implications of the sanctions on Guyana’s financial system.
According to the OFAC, between 2019 and 2023, Mohamed’s Enterprise omitted more than 10 thousand kilograms of gold from import and export declarations and avoided paying more than US$50 million in duty taxes to the Government of Guyana (GoG).
The Vice-President then went on to emphasise the seriousness of this matter by highlighting that a team has been identified to understand the intelligence of those involved in gold smuggling.
Within this context, he was referencing the three individuals who were apprehended at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) trying to smuggle more than US$500,000 of gold out of the country.

INVESTIGATING CORRUPTION
As it relates to the claim by the OFAC that Azruddin and Mohamed’s Enterprise have engaged in extensive bribery schemes involving government officials in Guyana, Dr Jagdeo said that this is being investigated and those officials involved in such matters will face consequences.
The Vice-President said: “We want to know who the officials are. We have asked the US Government at a top level, the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States of America. We wrote directly to her asking for all of the information about these illegal transactions, the smuggling, as well as all government officials involved.
“In this regard, the Guyana Revenue Authority has already submitted, on that very day; to the leadership of the IRS, a multi-page letter outlining all of the information that we want, we’d like to have on bank accounts, transactions, a whole range of issues, dating back not just to 2020 but all the way to 2015…”

STRENGTENING THE SYSTEM
The Vice-President related that a number of measures will be pursued in order to deter the illegal act of smuggling gold, including possible foreign partnerships and tightening the penalties.
“Now, clearly we have to strengthen this arrangement further and possibly, by some review by an external consultant, to strengthen this to see what additional safeguards we can put from gold declared legally and shipped through the system. We would probably have to get a feedback from the exporters from the third countries in which they’re exporting,” he said.
Dr Jagdeo later said: “We need to strengthen the charges and the penalties for the illegal export of gold or smuggling of gold by these large exporters.”
He also said: “We need to strengthen financial penalties. In Customs, if you evade taxes and smuggle goods in, you have undeclared goods, you have to pay a fine of triple the duty-paid value…so we may want to take what we do at Customs now, and introduce it here for the evasion of gold. Not just paying the foregone taxes, but you also have to pay a huge penalty for the evaded taxes.”
Dr Jagdeo said that the government is attempting to place a significant financial burden on gold smugglers through hefty fines and penalties.
The Vice-President related: “We may have to start exploring what we did under the laws dealing with money laundering or drug trafficking, forfeiture of assets…we may have to do this sort of thing because it has been going on for a while.”