Former accountant of the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB), Peter Ramcharran was on Tuesday arrested in Canada.
This was confirmed by Head of the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) Sydney James in other sections of the media.
An arrest warrant was issued for Ramcharran by Chief Magistrate Ann Mc Lennan after he was absent when several fraud charges were read against him earlier this month.
The charges filed against Ramcharran were in relation to falsification of accounts while he was employed at that entity from 2011 to 2015.
This publication understands that the warrant for Ramcharran’s arrest was forwarded to the Canadian authorities who managed to find the former accountant after checks were made based on immigration and other records.
It is expected that the Canadian authorities will initiate proceedings for Ramcharran to return to Guyana.
In May of this year, six former members of the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) were arrested and subsequently charged with fraudulent omission.
Charged and placed on $500,000 bail were People’s Progressive Party Members of Parliament Dharamkumar Seeraj and Nigel Dharamlall; former Deputy General Manager of GRDB, Ricky Ramraj; former GRDB General Manager Jagnarine Singh; former GRDB Board member Badrie Persaud; and former Deputy Permanent Secretary (Finance) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Prema Roopnarine.
The charges alleged that in 2011, the defendants omitted to enter some $52 million in the GRDB ledger; while the second charge stated that the then board members omitted to enter a sum of $77.3 million into the said ledger.Other charges read that between the years 2014 and 2015, the sums of $130 million, $9.7 million and $145 million were respectively omitted from the GRDB register.
They were represented by a team of attorneys comprising Priya Manickchand, Anil Nandlall, Sase Gunraj and Glenn Hanoman.
Nandlall had contended that the charges should not have been instituted because there allegedly is no evidence to support them.
