US-sanctioned businessman and the leader of We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) Azruddin Mohamed and his father Nazar ‘Shell’ Mohamed have been slapped with an 11-count indictment in the US Florida Southern District Court.
The indictment disclosed that a shipment containing approximately US$5.3m in gold bars shipped from Guyana by Mohamed’s Enterprise was seized at Miami International Airport on June 11, 2024. This had not been previously disclosed by the US or the Mohameds.
Nazar Mohamed was said to own 90% of Mohamed’s Enterprise, while Azruddin Mohamed owns 10%.
Both men face a maximum term of 20 years in prison on the most serious charge. They both face 10 counts together and Azruddin Mohamed faces an 11th in relation to the importation into Guyana of a Lamborghini vehicle.
According to documents seen by Stabroek News, Mohamed and his father conspired to commit wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering. The two were indicted on October 3rd, according to the documents.
The indictment lists four companies – without naming them – to describe how the offence was committed.
Company 1, with offices in Miami, provided secure worldwide transportation services for precious metal shipments originating from Latin America.
Company 2, with offices in Miami, was a private and commercial interstate carrier that provided worldwide shipping and delivery services of packages.
Company 3, based in Miami, provided freight forwarding services for shipments of packages and goods to Guyana by air and sea.
Company 4, with offices in Miami, was a private and commercial interstate carrier that provided worldwide shipping and delivery services of cargo.
In relation to Conspiracy to Commit Mail & Wire Fraud, the US said that the manner and means by which the defendants and their co-conspirators sought to accomplish the purpose of the conspiracy included, among other things, the following:
The two Mohameds entered into agreements on behalf of Mohamed’s Enterprise to sell thousands of kilograms of gold per year from Guyana to buyers in Miami and Dubai.
The two Mohameds coordinated with Company 1, via electronic communications between Guyana and Miami, to transport gold sold by Mohamed’s Enterprise from Guyana to Miami and Dubai (through Miami). In connection with those shipments, the two Mohameds caused payments to Company 1 from bank accounts in Guyana to the Southern District of Florida.
Further, the two men set up a system whereby Mohamed’s Enterprise would pay taxes and royalties in Guyana on one shipment of gold and receive the appropriate GRA and GGB seals, but then reuse the same customs declarations and GRA and GGB seals on the subsequent shipment so that Mohamed’s Enterprise could avoid taxes and royalties on the second shipment.
The indictment said that the two men caused Company 2 to ship empty wooden boxes with intact GRA and GGB seals from gold buyers in Dubai to Miami.
Further, Azruddin Mohamed caused Company 3 in Miami to ship those empty boxes with intact GRA and GGB seals from Miami to Mohamed’s Enterprise office in Guyana.
It is alleged that the two men reused empty boxes with intact GRA and GGB seals for shipments of gold to make it appear that Mohamed’s Enterprise had paid Guyana taxes and royalties on shipments of gold when, in truth and in fact, Mohamed’s Enterprise had not paid them on those shipments of gold.
Further, it is alleged that the two men paid bribes to Guyanese government officials, including customs officials, so that customs officials would accept shipments of gold by Mohamed’s Enterprise with duplicate paperwork and reused seals thereby avoiding the proper payment of Guyanese taxes and royalties.
The indictment said that from approximately 2017 to approximately 2024, the two men caused shipments through Miami with at least ten thousand kilograms of gold to be exported without payment of Guyanese taxes and royalties, causing a loss to the Guyanese authorities of approximately US$50 million.
The count of wire fraud also pertains to the same scheme outlined above.
The count of mail fraud also derives from this scheme.
The count of Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering also flows from the scheme described.
Azruddin Mohamed faces on his own a count of Mail Fraud pertaining to the importation of a Lamborghini, a matter for which he is also before a court here.
The purpose of the scheme and artifice was for the defendant to defraud the Guyanese government in connection with taxes and royalties owed on the sale of a Lamborghini shipped for the defendant from Miami by allegedly submitting false and fraudulent paperwork to the GRA regarding the true value of the Lamborghini, the indictment alleged.
The manner and means by which the defendant sought to accomplish the purpose of the scheme included, among other things, the following: Azruddin Mohamed directed Individual 1 (unnamed) to acquire a Lamborghini from California that cost approximately US$680,000 for the benefit of Azruddin Mohamed.
Azruddin Mohamed caused the shipment of the Lamborghini via private and commercial interstate carrier from Miami to Guyana.
Further, Azruddin Mohamed allegedly directed Individual 1 to create an invoice to make it falsely appear that the Lamborghini cost US$75,300 when, in truth and in fact, the Lamborghini cost approximately US$680,000.
The indictment also alleged that Azruddin Mohamed caused the false Lamborghini invoice to be presented to the GRA and thereby avoided over one US million dollars in taxes he owed to the GRA.
On or about October 30, 2020, the indictment said that the defendant, for the purpose of executing the scheme and artifice to defraud and to obtain money and property by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses, representations, and promises, knowing that the pretenses, representations, and promises were false and fraudulent when made, did knowingly cause to be delivered certain mail matter by Company 4, a private and commercial interstate carrier, according to the directions thereon, a 2020 Lamborghini A ventador SV shipped from Miami to Guyana.
The indictments come over a year after the two along with then Permanent Secretary Mae Toussaint Jr Thomas were sanctioned by the US in June of 2024.
Nazar Mohamed
Since then Mohammed formed the WIN part and contested in the just concluded general and regional and captured some 16 parliamentarian seats, relegating the PNCR to the third party position with a mere 12 seats while the ruling PPP/C walked away with 36 seats and newly formed Forward Guyana Party gained one seat.
While the parliamentarians have not yet been sworn in as yet, since President Irfaan Ali is yet to issue the proclamation to initiate this process, Mohamed is more than likely to be named the new opposition leader.
It was on June 11, 2024, the United States Department of The Treasury imposed sanctions on Mohamed and his father Nazar Mohamed over the alleged massive smuggling of gold. Toussaint Jr Thomas, was cited for alleged corruption leading to her being immediately sent on leave by the government here.
Allegations against the Mohameds include defrauding the government here of some US$50 million in taxes from smuggled gold, as well as bribing public officials.
For Toussaint Jr Thomas’s part, it said that she used her office while serving at the Ministry of Home Affairs, to offer benefits to the Mohameds that included contracts, licences for weapons, and passports.
OFAC – a financial intelligence and enforcement agency of the US Treasury Department – designated Azruddin Mohamed and Mohamed’s Enterprise “for being persons who have materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, corruption, including the misappropriation of state assets, the expropriation of private assets for personal gain, corruption related to government contracts or the extraction of natural resources, or bribery, that is conducted by a foreign person.”
OFAC also designated Nazar Mohamed as being “a foreign person who is or has been a leader or official of Mohamed’s Enterprise, an entity whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to E.O. 13818, as a result of activities related to Nazar’s tenure.”
As for Toussaint Jr Thomas, OFAC designated her as being “a foreign person who is a current or former government official, or a person acting for or on behalf of such an official, who is responsible for or complicit in, or has directly or indirectly engaged in, corruption, including the misappropriation of state assets, the expropriation of private assets for personal gain, corruption related to government contracts or the extraction of natural resources, or bribery.”
Read the full indictment.
