The United States of America (US) would be concerned if sanctioned businessman Azruddin Mohamed is elected a parliamentarian, according to ambassador Nicole Theriot.
“When you see an OFAC sanctioned individual become [an official] within a government, it sends concern through the private sector of the United States. So you see US companies often rethinking their relationships in the country,” she told reporters today on the sidelines of the Global Biodiversity Alliance Summit being held at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre.
“All these US companies want to come to Guyana and Guyana is welcoming…and I don’t want, if he were to become a member of the government, that to change. So, that’s a real concern that I have.”
The diplomat noted that the same concerns apply if Mohamed becomes a parliamentarian in the opposition.
“It’s problematic in multiple ways…We have to be very careful if that person is involved, let’s say he were on a certain committee, we would have to be very careful in working with that committee. We have to ensure that we didn’t work with him specifically,” the ambassador added.
In 2024, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced that it sanctioned Nazar Mohamed and his son, Azruddin Mohamed, as well as several of their companies.
The sanctions are related to the evasion of taxes on gold exports, noting that between 2019 and 2023, Mohamed’s Enterprise omitted more than 10 thousand kilograms (kg) of gold from import and export declarations and avoided paying more than US$50 million in duty taxes to the Government of Guyana.
Azruddin Mohamed has since launched a political party called We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) and he running as the presidential candidate. His party has been approved by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to contest the elections on September 1.
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