Ex-GRDB members freed of fraud charges after SOCU prosecutor’s absence
The continued absence of the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) Prosecutor yesterday prompted a city magistrate to dismiss several charges against six former Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) members, who were accused of failing to record entries for funds amounting to over $200 million in total in the agency’s general ledger.
Those charged were: Jagnarine Singh, former GRDB General Manager; Prema Roopnarine, former Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture; Ricky Ramraj, agricultural consultant; Badrie Persaud, business consultant; Dharamkumar Seeraj, the General Secretary of the Rice Producers Associa-tion and a PPP/C MP; and Nigel Dharamlall, also a PPP/C MP.
The first of these three charges, which were read to Roopnarine, Persaud, Seeraj and Ramraj, related to the sum of $9,724,082 and the period between January 1, 2013, and December 31, 2013; the second related to the sum of $1,045,000 and the period between January 1, 2015, and December 31, 2015; and the third related to the sum of $130,000,000 and the period between January 1, 2014 and December 31, 2014.
All six accused were also read a joint charge relating to the sum of $77,333,199 for the period between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2012.
Special Prosecutor Lawrence Harris failed to make an appearance in the courtroom of Senior Magistrate Leron Daly when the proceedings were called yesterday. His absence prompted attorneys-at-law Anil Nandlall and Glenn Hanoman, who are representing the defendants, to ask that the matters be dismissed as Harris failed to show up on three consecutive occasions prior to yesterday in relation to the matter.
The magistrate subsequently dismissed all the charges for want of prosecution.
In August, the charge against Singh, Roopnarine and Dharamlall, who were accused of omitting entries totalling $52 million from the general ledger of one of its bank accounts, was dismissed after prosecutor Harris failed to establish a case against the defendants.