A Paper Committal (PC) will be conducted into the misconduct in public office charge against Finance Minister under the previous APNU/AFC Government, Winston Jordan to determine whether there is sufficient evidence for him to stand trial by a jury before a Judge.
When the matter continued before Senior Magistrate Leron Daly at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts on Monday, Jordan’s lawyer, Dawn Holder-Cush, made a request for a PC to be conducted into the indictable charge. With no objections raised by Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) Prosecutor Neville Jeffers, Magistrate Daly granted defence counsel’s request.
The PC, which involves witnesses’ statements and documentary evidence being tendered to the court without the witnesses being present, inventoried, and marked as exhibits, is likely to commence on May 2.
Jordan is currently out on $3 million bail after being charged by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) —an arm of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) — for misconduct in public office. He was first arraigned at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts on December 28, 2021.
The former Finance Minister is adamant that the charge against him is politically motivated.
It is alleged that Jordan, being and performing duties of Finance Minister, and being the concerned Minister for the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), a company owned by the Government, between February 26, 2020 and July 31, 2020, at Main Street, Georgetown, wilfully misconducted himself by acting recklessly when he signed a NICIL Transfer of Property Order which was published in the Official Gazette transferring to, and vesting to BK Marine absolutely, all buildings, erections, stellings, platforms and further appurtenances; that is to say, Mudlots 1 & 2F of Mudlot 3A, B & D, situated at North Cummingsburg, Georgetown, being over 2.553 acres for payment of $20,260,276, the property being valued at over $5B.
The charge further states that the property was sold at a price that was grossly undervalued to such a degree that it amounts to an abuse of the public’s trust without reasonable excuse or justification.
Back in December 2021, Jordan was arrested by SOCU, an arm of the GPF that specialises in white-collar investigations, as part of investigations into alleged instances of corrupt governmental transactions between 2015 and 2020.
BK Marine whose principal is Brian Tiwarie, SOCU said, had paid only 10 per cent of the purchase price; that is, $20 million, and Jordan had gone ahead to issue a vesting order, passing the title to the purchaser without the purchaser making payment of any further sums of money.
According to SOCU, the vesting order stated that the property is being sold free from encumbrance and liabilities, and no further sum of money is owed by the purchaser.
It said that the transport was subsequently issued for the property, and the value strangely stated on the transport was $400,000,000. Further, SOCU said, the agreement of sale stated that the title must be passed only upon full payment of the purchase price.
SOCU contended that investigators have evidence to establish that a facility located some seven miles upriver, being a mere fraction of the size of the State property under investigation, was sold by a private company for US$17 million. It had pointed out that this was only one of several investigations that implicated former Minister Jordan.
While Jordan had previously denied any wrongdoing regarding this transaction, Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall, SC, had announced that there were active investigations into a number of suspected shady dealings under the former APNU/AFC Government and the former Finance Minister had been implicated in a number of “nefarious transactions”.
On behalf of the State, the Attorney General had also filed civil proceedings against Jordan at the Demerara High Court over the sale of the river frontage to BK Marine. In that case, Nandlall was seeking to overturn the contentious sale of the State property.
To this end, he had asked the court to declare the agreement of sale between BK Marine and NICIL illegal, unlawful, null, void, repugnant, and contrary to public policy.
However, last September, Justice Brassington Reynolds dismissed the lawsuit on finding that while the Attorney General is authorised to bring an action for misfeasance in public office against Jordan, he did not, in the case at bar, satisfy the elements of the tort.
Referencing a plethora of case law, he held that the pleadings in Nandlall’s Affidavit in Support were misconceived, and therefore ruled that the case was an abuse of the court’s process, before striking it out. As such, he had awarded costs of $2 million each to Jordan and BK Marine.
Describing it as “one of the most shocking decisions I have ever witnessed in my brief career at the Bar”, Nandlall had signalled his intention to appeal the decision of the High Court Judge.
