Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall says that laws will have to be tightened to safeguard Guyanese from becoming victims of ponzi schemes and other similar illegal financial operations.
He also spoke about stringent penalties being attached to these offences, and the Caribbean coming together to fight this new phenomenon wreaking havoc across the region.
The AG said that with defrauders in Guyana yielding “grand success”, schemes are becoming prevalent, therefore, the government has to move swiftly to stamp out these operations.
“We are hearing now of different but similar schemes across the country. We certainly have to look back at our laws to tighten them to make ponzi schemes and devices of these types criminal offences and to have strong penalties attached to them when they are committed. Right now, we really don’t have any laws that specifically address this issue, and that is why we have to resort to the ordinary criminal law and the common law to get offences to charge these people with,” he noted.
Thirty-four-year-old Yuri Garcia Dominguez and his wife, 32-year-old Ateeka Ishmael, are before the courts facing multiple charges in connection to an alleged ponzi scheme they operated along the East Coast of Demerara. Millions of dollars were said to have been swindled from Guyanese.
Just recently, another duo – a 41-year-old minibus driver and a 48-year-old Accountant appeared in a Linden, Region 10 court for obtaining money by false pretence.
The court heard that the duo was operating an alleged ponzi scheme.
