Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall says that he is now taking steps to stop a fraudulent firm—Accelerated Capital Firm Inc. (ACFI)—from taking monies from the masses through a Ponzi scheme.
Guyana Securities Council (GSC) recently wrote President Dr. Irfaan Ali, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, and the Commissioner of Police informing them of the operations.
Subsequently, Nandlall met with and received from the GSC a report of the operations of ACFI.
The Report describes ACFI as a “Pyramid or a Ponzi Scheme” that has received hundreds of millions of dollars from thousands of Guyanese.
Today, Government assembled a high-level team headed by Nandlall, the Commissioner of Police, the Governor of the Central Bank, the Head of the Financial Intelligence Unit and Head of the Guyana Securities Council 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. Persons with relevant information are invited to assist in the investigations.
GSC reported that the scheme violates several pieces of legislation across the fiscal regulatory architecture.
ACFI is not licensed by GSC to solicit investments from the public.
The GSC also wrote to Mr. Yuri Garcia Dominguez to cease and desist from advising the clients of Accelerated Capital Firm Inc. that the reason for non-payment to their clients is that the Guyana Securities Council is in the process of granting a license to Accelerated Capital Firm Inc.
Thousands of Guyanese citizens have enrolled in the Ponzi scheme where ACFI claims that it uses a foreign exchange platform to trade and it seems that all aspects of the scheme operate online via training webinars, WhatsApp and emails. The methods of payment used to invest and trade are credit cards or wire transfer.
Further, investigations have revealed that local banks have terminated the accounts of Ms. Ateeka Ishmael and Mr. Yuri Garcia Dominguez—the main operators of ACFI—and refused their request to open a corporate account as a result of their due diligence and the public notice by GSC in the print media.
