Sources have confirmed that Yuri Garcia Dominguez, the man behind a Ponzi scheme being looked into by authorities, was granted naturalization by former Minister of Citizenship, Winston Felix, and is now in possession of a 2020 Guyanese passport.
This publication understands that Felix was duly advised by the Guyana Security Council (GSC) that the man should not have been allowed to become a citizen. The body even informed Felix of the concerns it had with Dominguez being that he is part of Accelerated Capital Firm Inc. (ACFI), the firm that is running the Ponzi scheme.
Guyana Standard understands that just about 17,000 Guyanese have been affected by the operation where hundreds of millions have been solicited.
Earlier this afternoon, the Ministry of Legal Affairs notified the public that a high-level team has been set up to immediately, adopting a multi-sector approach, investigate the operations of ACFI, with a view, inter alia, of reimbursing monies to the persons who “invested” in the scheme.
The Ministry of Legal Affairs also stated that GSC sent letters since October 2019 to Felix as well as Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan informing them of a suspected illegal investment (pyramid scheme) allegedly operated by Dominguez and Ateeka Ishmael. The letters were sent to the Ministers after publications were seen in the newspapers giving notice that Dominguez had applied to the Minister of Citizenship for naturalization in Guyana. The notices invited persons who knew of any reason why naturalization should not be granted to be sent to the Ministry of the Presidency. The GSC received no response to these correspondences.
Nevertheless, the man became a citizen and was given his passport.
