Following almost a year of investigations, the Berkeley Research Group (BGR Group) which operates out of Washington DC has cleared the damning allegations levelled against popular businessman Nazar ‘Shell’ Mohamed and his family.
The Mohameds, in the past, have been accused of money laundering, gold smuggling, murder, extortion, drug trade, and gunrunning among other serious crimes.
These claims have sullied his reputation, and prevented him and his family from securing U.S. visas.
But BGR investigator, Tom Locke, a global security expert who retired as the acting Assistant Director of the FBI’s Inspection Division on Tuesday spoke with this publication in a major tell-all of the probe and the unsubstantiated allegations made against one of Guyana’s leading business moguls.
He found that Mohamed was never investigated in connection with any crime nor had he been arrested or charged with a violation of any sort.
In addition, Locke was adamant that Mohamed’s businesses must pass certain financial and security checks which should give credence to his business dealings as being ‘above board’.
As such, he cited that the Mohameds having stringent written guidelines they must abide by to do business with companies such as ExxonMobil, Haliburton, Champion X, Stena Drilling, Peterson Energy Logistics, Aronco and Baker Hughes.
“What I have found is that they are all allegations and once you look behind the allegations, they are nothing to substantiate any of the allegations. It is amazing that this man who has done so much for Guyana and the local community is being subjected to those types of remarks,” Locke added.
“In my mind, these allegations are all false and were made by either his competitors or someone who seeks to get a disadvantage of Mr. Mohamed and the business world but if you look at Mr. Mohamed, he is quite successful on his own.”
During the investigation, the US expert said he reached out to a lot of people not only from the US government but also from other foreign governments who have done business with Mohamed over the years.
“I have also met with his business associates, all of his family, some of his friends… I have looked at the international database and everything that talked about the adverse media… I got hold of a lot of police reports and there was no corruption and no attempt to cover up anything.”
He added that Mohamed had travelled to the US for 40 years and there is no indication of a problem since he has never overstayed his visa and had abided by all the rules and regulations.
Moreover, Locke stated that during his investigations he had little interaction with Mohamed and pointed out that his report was in no way influenced by the businessman.
“He gave me the full latitude to look any place I wanted to, to talk to whomever I wanted to and there wasn’t any suggestion by him to influence those investigations in any way.”
Locke has 32 years of experience working with the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI). His last posting was as the Acting Assistant Director of the FBI’s Inspection Division in Wahington DC. He also investigated the bombing of the World Trade Centre in 2001 among other events worldwide.
In fact, it was Locke who requested to present some of his team’s findings to the Guyanese media and let them know they have been some stories over the years that contained some of the allegations which had to be cleared up.
One of the allegations against the prominent businessman was back in September 2020, when he was accused of buying illegal gold from Venezuela but this was again never proven to be true.
Then after the gunning down of Richardo ‘Short Pants’ Fugundes in 2021, ex-police officer, Dion Bascom accused the businessman and his son of paying a large bribe to cover up the investigations.
But the Regional Security System (RSS) after their investigations found that there was no evidence of corrupt practices or attempts to cover up the probe into the murder of Ricardo Fagundes.
Bascom was arrested at a location where illegal drugs were found during a Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit operation after which he made two live streams where he made further allegations and personal demands.
This veracity of the allegations was further undermined by the fact that Bascom was found to be living in a rented and furnished property in Essequibo belonging to an Essequibo businessman and gold trader. More so, he was also employed as a personal security officer for the said Essequibo businessman.
Meanwhile, Locke commended the Mohameds for their kindness and their acts of charity. For the past 20 years the senior businessman has been involved in philanthropy work and has assisted thousands of Guyanese from all walks of life. He would often report that only five per cent of his charitable work is being publicized.
