Guyana said Tuesday it would seek “additional information” after the United States froze the assets of one of the South American country’s richest men.
The US Treasury Department earlier announced it had sanctioned gold trader Nazar Mohamed, his son, their company and Guyanese government official Mae Thomas “for their roles in public corruption in Guyana.”
The US agency accuses Mohamed and his son of evading taxes and defrauding the Guyanese government, as well as bribing customs officials to falsify documents and facilitate illegal shipments.
Between 2019 and 2023, their company Mohamed’s Enterprise “omitted more than 10 thousand kilograms of gold from import and export declarations and avoided paying more than $50 million in duty taxes to the Government of Guyana,” the office said in a statement.
The corruption, it alleges, was enabled by Guyanese officials such as Thomas.
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For its part, the government in Georgetown said it “will be requesting additional information on the matters highlighted, with a view to aiding local law enforcement agencies.”
It added that Thomas, who was a permanent secretary of the Ministry of Labor, “has been sent on leave with immediate effect.”
Mohamed, who is also a local government official for Guyana’s ruling party, declined to comment.
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Tiny Guyana has the world’s biggest reserves of crude oil per capita, but the vast majority of the mineral-rich country’s 800,000 people live in poverty.
“Today’s action underscores our commitment to holding accountable those who seek to exploit Guyana’s underdeveloped gold sector for personal gain,” US Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said.
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