Ponzi scheme accused hit with 14 more charges
Yuri Garcia Dominguez and his wife Ateeka Ishmael, who are accused of defrauding thousands of Guyanese through an alleged Ponzi scheme, were yesterday faced with 14 additional charges.
The couple appeared before Magistrate Fabayo Azore at the Vigilance Magistrate’s Court, where the charges of conspiring with other persons to obtain monies by false pretense were read to them.
It is alleged that they obtained a total of $9 million from the 14 victims.
They were granted bail in the sum of $800,000 each and are due to make their next appearance on November 2nd, 2020.
With the latest charges, the couple now face a total of 72 charges.
On Wednesday last, the couple were slapped with 11 charges in Georgetown. They were subsequently released on $2.2 million bail each and told to return to court on October 7th.
They were previously charged with 47 counts of conspiracy to commit a felony for which they were granted $13.4 million bail on some charges and remanded to prison on the others.
The Guyana Police Force in a statement had said that Dominguez, 34, a naturalised Guyanese of Cuban origin, and his wife, Ishmael, 32, both of Track A, Coldingen, East Coast Demerara, were detained as part of an ongoing investigation of alleged fraud. Approximately 17,000 Guyanese lost hun
dreds of millions of dollars after they invested with the unlicensed company run by the couple.
Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum has said that the police have obtained a total of 69 statements from investors, who reached out to the Criminal Investigation Department. These individuals had 77 transactions amounting to $135 million, Blanhum disclosed.