Cuban national Yuri Garcia-Dominguez and his Guyanese wife Ateeka Ishmael, who have been accused of operating a massive “Ponzi Scheme”, have begun to repay investors.
The repayments are currently being issued to investors at a location in the capital city, Georgetown.
INews understands that among the first to benefit from the refunds are those persons who invested the least amount of money in the business, registered as Accelerated Capital Firm Inc.
Reports indicate that over 17,000 Guyanese had invested in the business which had collected millions from Guyanese under the guise that the funds would be traded via Forex and that the investors would receive attractive returns of as high as 50 per cent on their investments on a monthly basis.
However, many Guyanese came forward to reveal – through various platforms – that they have not been receiving their returns on investment, and efforts to withdraw their initial investment from the company were proving futile.
When word of this reached the new PPP/C Government, a high-level task force comprising of the Bank of Guyana, the Financial Intelligence Unit and the Guyana Securities Council, was established to investigate the matter.
The couple have since been slapped with over 70 charges in relation to collecting money under false pretense and they are currently being investigated for money laundering.
In late September, the couple was finally released on bail in the sum of over $30M.
Upon their release, the couple promised that investors would be repaid. Moreover, the principals have denied that the company operates a Ponzi Scheme.
