AG files slew of legal actions against businessmen

ATTORNEY GENERAL AND MINISTER OF LEGAL AFFAIRS Mr. Anil Nandlall filed a
slew of legal actions here against several businessmen to retrieve millions of dollars’ worth of
state assets he believes, were questionably acquired by them
Among the defendants are Mr. Brian Tiwari, proprietor of BK International, and popular city-
based contractor, Mr. Courtney Benn, owner of the local contracting firm going by his name.
Several other prominent names in the local business world are listed in Nandlall’s litigation, but
he was unwilling to disclose them now.
Nandlall hinted however, that one of them served as a member on the Board of Directors at the
Lands and Survey Commission.
The ‘sweet-heart’ deals to friends, according to Nandlall, occurred during the 2015 – 2020 tenure
of the A Partnership for National Unity, Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) coalition
government.
Nandlall, who was himself under investigations by the APNU+AFC government for allegedly
stealing millions worth in law books, said the terms of the deals clearly breached the country’s
regulations.
He was eventually cleared of the charges in 2020 when the Director of Public Prosecutions
(DPP), Mrs. Shalimar Ali-Hack, withdrew the charges after Nandlall’s Peoples Progressive Party
Civic (PPP/C) coalition triumphed at the highly-controversial polls.
“I have much more that we will be disclosed. We promised on the election campaign that we are
going to investigate these matters (because) these abuses of state resources must stop. That is
what we promised the people of this country and they voted for us. We are going to implement
that promise,” the AG assured.

The agreements under which the state properties were sold are tantamount to defrauding the
state, and Nandlall intends to retrieve the disputed properties.
“That is my duty as Attorney General and as the legal representative for the state and the legal
representative for the people of Guyana. That wharf is owned by you. When BK International
defrauded the state and took that wharf, he took it from you (and) it is my duty as Attorney
General to get it back for you,” he said.
Nandlall disclosed that a businessman bought a prime piece of state-owned real estate in the
capital city for just $13M when the market value is calculated at $150M.
“He is a director on the Board (of Directors) at Lands and Surveys and the Commissioner did not
receive from the President (David Granger) the delegated power to sell, yet he arrogated unto
himself the power to sell and sold at that value,” Nandlall complained.
“Similarly, when we were in government, Mr. Brian Tiwari drew down over 75 percent of the
US$21M (Haags Bush) project, and did not do quarter of the work. I terminated that contract in
2015 when I was about to sue for breach of contract (but) then we lost the government,” Nandlall
recalled.
Eventually, Tiwari collected the full sum from the APNU+AFC administration for the Haags
Bush scheme despite only completing a mere 25 percent of the contracted works despite the still-
active court case filed against BK under the PPP/C administration.
“APNU+AFC came in and rather than continue the case to sue for breach of contract, Brain
Tiwari got a lawyer to write claiming the balance of the money in the contract USD$5.7M and he
got it. For doing 25 percent of the work, he got 100 percent of the contract price,” Nandlall said.