Billionaire businessmen, Nazar Mohamed and his son and Azruddin, have been arrested following an extradition request from the United States.
The younger Mohamed, the leader of the main opposition We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party that won the second most seats in the National Assembly following the September 3 regional and general elections, was arrested outside the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) office on Friday. He was handcuffed and arrested after being surrounded two van loads of police officers, with some of them wearing face masks.
The arrest comes a few weeks after the Mohemeds were indicted by the United States government on charges of gold smuggling, wire fraud and money laundering.
The WIN leader was due to appear before the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court this afternoon in connection with a local tax evasion case involving the GRA.
The Mohameds,well-known through their company Mohamed’s Enterprise, were indicted earlier in October in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The indictment outlines 11 charges combined against the father and son, including gold smuggling, wire fraud, and money laundering, each carrying a potential maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
In 2024, both men were sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for alleged involvement in corrupt practices and illicit gold trading activities.