–Dr. Jagdeo says; brands his promise of donating such earnings as ‘nonsense’

THE promise by embattled businessman Azruddin Mohamed to donate his presidential salary to charity if elected to office, was on Thursday rubbished by People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) General Secretary Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, who pointed out the irony of that pledge coming from a man who is facing allegations of tax evasion and gold smuggling.

Mohamed made the declaration at a recent public meeting in Parfait Harmonie, telling supporters he will forego any pay if he leads the country and give it to charity instead.

Dr Jagdeo during his weekly press conference at Freedom House said that without spending a day in office, Mohamed is already talking about collecting a salary.

“He evaded in five years, $11 billion in taxes… He hasn’t even served a single day, and he’s collected the salary equivalent to 275 years…,” Jagdeo said.

Branding the so-called promise as “nonsense,” Dr Jagdeo pointed to the numerous allegations of egregious financial crimes being levelled against Mohamed and the irony of him now presenting himself as a pristine choice for leadership.

“He says he’ll fight corruption when he’s under U.S. sanctions for gold- smuggling. He’s also been implicated in torture and trafficking of people,” the PPP General Secretary said.

He further said: “The most corrupt individual in the country talking about corruption… You can’t have any [bank] account anywhere in the world.”

The controversial businessman along with his father, Nazar Mohamed and their businesses, namely Mohamed’s Enterprise, Hadi’s World and Team Mohamed’s Racing, on June 11, 2024, were sanctioned by U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which oversees sanctions against individuals and entities tied to illicit activities and hostile foreign governments.

In a June 2024 statement, the OFAC stated, “Azruddin and Mohamed’s Enterprise evaded Guyana’s tax on gold exports, and defrauded the Guyanese government of tax revenues by under-
declaring their gold exports to Guyanese authorities. Between 2019 and 2023, Mohamed’s Enterprise omitted more than 10 thousand kilogrammes of gold from import-and-export declarations and avoided paying more than US$50 million in duty taxes to the Government of Guyana.”