Statement from the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI)
The Board of Directors hereby confirms that a fraud was perpetrated at a Commercial Bank and resulted in the debit of GWI’s bank account.
The fraud was discovered by the Finance Department upon reconciling accounts for March 2021. The amounts are $17,489,417 (Seventeen Million, Four Hundred and Eighty Nine Thousand Four Hundred and Seventeen Dollars) debited on March 16, 2021 and $12,327,515 (Twelve Million Three Hundred and Twenty Seven Thousand Five Hundred and Fifteen Dollars) debited on March 24, 2021.
Upon querying, the bank informed GWI that the amounts represent payments made via wire transfer instructions, payable to persons resident in the USA. The names of the recipients are Troy Robertson of 1405 Brooklyn Avenue AF2F Brooklyn Avenue, New York 11210 and Deyannera Mohamed of 1998 Pacific Street, Brooklyn NY 11216.
It has been established that both signatures on the wire transfer instruction letters were forged.
GWI has never conducted business with these persons or at no time initiated or instructed the bank to carry out these fictitious transactions.
The Guyana Police Force was promptly called in and is currently conducting investigations. The police finger print experts have confirmed that the signatures were forgeries. The Bank of Guyana has also been notified of this fraud.
