–owed taxes soar past $191 billion as interest continues to climb

BEFORE Chief Magistrate Faith McGusty at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts on Thursday, U.S.-sanctioned businessmen Nazar Mohamed and his son, Azruddin Mohamed — a Member of Parliament and Leader of the We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party — appeared to answer multiple tax-related charges filed by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).

However, when the matter was called, the GRA’s prosecutor informed the court that the agency had decided to fully withdraw and discontinue the charges.

The prosecutor did not provide any reasons for the agency’s decision to withdraw.

The charges were laid by GRA Commissioner-General Godfrey Statia against the duo who are principals of Mohamed’s Enterprise. The duo was represented by attorneys Siand Dhurjon and Damien Da Silva.

In a press statement following the conclusion of the hearing, the GRA clarified that the charges preceded the U.S. Government’s request for the duo to be extradited to face serious criminal charges in the North American country.

“In light of this extradition request and Government of Guyana’s decision to proceed with the said extradition request, and taking into account all relevant legal principles, including international comity, appropriateness and fairness, these charges were withdrawn and discontinued,” the statement read.

The GRA filed the charges following what it said was a comprehensive audit into Mohamed’s Enterprise’s gold export records. The GRA had accused the men of deliberately failing to disclose the full earnings, resulting in a significant loss of tax revenue to the State.

According to the complaints, Nazar and Azruddin are accused of understating billions of dollars in taxable income from gold exports between 2019 and 2023 — an alleged total of $34 billion in underreported income.

In a letter to Nazar and Azruddin, GRA stated that the unpaid taxes continue to attract interest under the Financial Administration and Audit Act and the Income Tax Act. The GRA said a total of $191,171,975,676 is owed by the Mohameds.

In the meantime, the government has pledged to intensify efforts to recover the taxes owed by the businessmen.

On the morning of October 31, both father and son were taken into custody in Georgetown in connection with the extradition request from the U.S.

During their first appearance before Principal Magistrate Judy Latchman, they were each granted $150,000 bail. Conditions of their bail require them to surrender their passports and report weekly to the Ruimveldt Police Station, measures intended to ensure their availability for ongoing legal proceedings.

The case is scheduled to continue on November 10, 2025.

The father and son have been hit with an 11-count indictment in the U.S. Florida Southern District Court. The pair faces 10 counts jointly, while Azruddin is charged with an additional count related to the importation of a 2020 Lamborghini Roadster SVJ into Guyana.

Court documents allege that Azruddin and his father conspired to commit wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, conspiracy, aiding and abetting and customs-related violations connected to an alleged US$50 million gold export and tax evasion scheme.

The indictment was issued by a grand jury in October.

According to the filings, Nazar owns 90 per cent of Mohamed’s Enterprise, with Azruddin holding the remaining 10 per cent. The two face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for the most serious charge.

In June 2024, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Nazar and Azruddin for engaging in gold smuggling and public corruption, including the alleged defrauding of the Guyanese Government of over US$50 million in unpaid duty taxes.

Mae Thomas, the former Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Labour, was also sanctioned for allegedly accepting bribes in exchange for facilitating the awarding of government contracts to the Mohameds.

Mohamed is currently facing criminal charges for falsely declaring that the Lamborghini’s purchase price was US$75,300 instead of US$695,000. It is alleged that he evaded $383,383,345 in taxes.

Moreover, the GRA is seeking a court order requiring the Mohamed family to pay an additional $1.2 billion in taxes on a number of under-declared luxury vehicles, including a Toyota Land Cruiser PAB 3000, a Toyota Land Cruiser PAB 4000, the Lamborghini, and a Ferrari 488 PAD 5000.

The family initiated judicial review proceedings in the Demerara High Court after the GRA’s demand for the outstanding taxes and the attempted seizure of the vehicles.

The judicial review proceedings challenge the GRA’s tax assessments and seizure attempts, with the Mohameds’ arguing that the actions were unlawful, unfair, and beyond the authority’s legal authority.

Subsequently, the High Court granted an injunction which effectively bars the GRA from seizing the luxury vehicles while the tax evasion case against the Mohameds remains pending.

Justice Gino Persaud will rule on the judicial review application next Friday.

U.S. authorities are believed to have launched their investigation into the Mohameds in the mid-2010s, supported by intelligence sharing and law enforcement cooperation between Guyana and the United States that dates back to around 2016–2017.

The probe involved several U.S. agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).