Sanctioned businessman and presidential aspirant, Azruddin Mohamed will not receive special treatment, Vice President, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo declared on Thursday, stressing that laws apply to everyone, regardless of their wealth or status.
The vice president’s comment came in response to a pointed question from a journalist who asked whether the government was intentionally allowing Mohamed to operate freely, despite serious allegations levelled against him.
Dr Jagdeo, who also serves as general secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), rejected this suggestion, making it clear that the PPP has no collaboration whatsoever with Mohamed or his associates.
On the contrary, he believes that because the opposition and its associates are now seeing that he (Azrudin) is failing to gain traction among PPP supporters and are now ‘accusing the PPP of encouraging him to do what he has done.’
Dr Jagdeo reminded that the sanctioned businessman is being investigated for smuggling 10,000 kilograms of gold over a five-year period, an act that cost the state US$50 million in unpaid taxes. He reiterated that such a sum could fund the government’s schoolchildren Because We Care cash grant for an entire year.
Therefore, “He would be held to account for all of his criminal behaviour. There is no double standard in government where a wealthy person can smuggle gold, evade taxes, do all sorts of criminality, and then get away consequence free.”
With general and regional elections slated for September 1, the vice president made it clear that that the PPP is in no way collaborating with the Mohameds to steal the opposition votes.
“We have no collaboration with the Mohameds,” he said. Instead, he believes the Mohameds are in active cooperation with the two major opposition parties, in what appears to be a strategy to replicate the 2011 hung parliament scenario.
Nevertheless, “It will not happen. The PPP will win and win handsomely — both the presidency and the majority of seats in parliament,” Dr Jagdeo affirmed.
He was asked for an update on possible charges, to which he clarified that the matter is in the hands of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU). He reminded reporters that the government allows these agencies to operate in a professional and independent manner.
“When they are ready, it will happen,” he said. “And again, he poses no threat to the PPP.”
On June 11, 2024, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced sanctions on one of Guyana’s wealthiest families, Nazar Mohamed (Nazar) and his son, Azruddin Mohamed, their company, Mohamed’s Enterprise, and a Guyanese government official, Mae Thomas, for their roles in public corruption.
Based on reports, 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 10,000 kilograms of gold from import and export declarations and avoided paying more than $50 million in duty taxes to the Guyana Government.
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