Guyanese law enforcement officials are aggressively pursuing the extradition of former Deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Ash Deonarine, so that criminal charges can be instituted against him for the alleged unauthorised withdrawal of $27M from the utility company’s accounts as “back pay”.
Reports are that Deonarine left Guyana for Canada shortly after an audit ordered by the APNU+AFC Government revealed that the large sum of money had been ‘paid’ to him without the knowledge, and by extension, approval of the company’s Board of Directors (BoD).
INews understands that international law enforcement bodies have already been notified of the situation and were informed that the Guyana Police Force (GPF) is seeking to have Deonarine charged for the alleged crime.
Meanwhile, earlier today Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum told the media that he is in constant communication with the overseas authorities and had already expressed an interest in having Deonarine apprehended and returned to Guyana to face charges.
However, he refrained from disclosing the former deputy CEO’s exact location at this point in time.
Deonarine, like former Director of GPL Carvil Duncan had allegedly received an ‘unauthorised back pay’.
Duncan had been recently charged with fraud for the payment.
He is said to have signed off on Deonarine’s payments as a Director of GPL, while Deonarine allegedly signed off for Duncan’s payment of $984,000.
These payments were later unearthed by independent auditors who were at that time conducting investigations into Guyana’s PetroCaribe Fund and had appeared to be ‘suspicious’ in nature at first glance.
It should be noted that Deonarine has always maintained he is innocent of any wrongdoing during his tenure at GPL. He had also indicated that he is willing to return to Guyana to defend himself in a court of law.
