- US probing gold smuggling between Columbia, Venezuela and Guyana
The United States is investigating a gold smuggling operation involving Colombia, Venezuela, and Guyana. Former Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman, revealed that the investigation commenced during the previous People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) administration.
In a statement on Saturday, Trotman mentioned that a local investigation by the APNU+AFC coalition administration was halted when the PPP returned to power in 2020.
“Sometime afterwards, the Ministry of the Presidency ordered and initiated its own intelligence-led operation, with a unique sobriquet, to curb gold smuggling and transnational crime. I am reliably informed that this operation was shut down within 5 days of the new administration taking office in August, 2020,” Trotman said.
He noted that the current sanctions stemmed from a separate investigation spanning over two years, preceding the recent announcements by the US Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.
US Ambassador Nicole Theriot stated on Friday that the US government did not share detailed information about the investigation into Nazar “Shell” Mohamed, his son Azruddin, and Permanent Secretary Mae Thomas, following standard protocol similar to that in the US.
“They have to keep these investigations very close-hold because they can be compromised by anyone and so we tend to not share a lot of information until the investigation reaches a certain stage and so I regret that people feel they’ve been left in the dark but in the United States it would be exactly the same way. If we are conducting an investigation against someone accused of corruption in the United States, we would not share that information until the investigation was at a stage where that was possible,” she told reporters.
The US Treasury Department alleged that between 2019 and 2023, Mohamed’s Enterprise allegedly omitted more than 10 thousand kilogrammes of gold from import and export declarations and avoided paying more than $50 million in duty taxes to the Government of Guyana.
Trotman said at that time US agents were concerned mainly that gold mined in Guyana, Venezuela and Colombia, was being illegally shipped from, and through Guyana, to the US. “Most concerning, was the belief that the proceeds of the sale of this gold were financing activities that were very inimical to the security and interests of the United States. This was not an investigation into corruption only,” he said Mr Trotman who studied Defence Planning & Resources Management at the US National Defence University.
The then Natural Resources Minister said the US agents related that they were then authorised to share such information with representatives of the then government because “in the past, there were serious concerns about confidences being kept and sensitive investigations being compromised by government of Guyana officials.”
