Latest update April 18th, 2024 12:59 AM
Feb 21, 2016 News
-accused says she was paid to procure “girls” for his business
Thanks to the police, a Berbice businessman who is based in neighbouring Suriname, may be able to recover the half million dollars he gave to a woman who claimed that she was a staff of the Ministry of Agriculture and was in a position to obtain important documents to facilitate his fishing business.
The woman was arrested yesterday in New Amsterdam after evading capture for several days but although she has admitted collecting some money from the businessman, she gave a totally different reason for the transaction.
The woman is claiming that she was given the money to procure some girls for the businessman’s business in Suriname.
The businessman told this newspaper that he was introduced to the woman sometime last week by another acquaintance who was arranging for him to obtain “vital documents” to aid in his business.
He said that he has been in the fishing business for the past 22 years and recently he was told that he would need to get some approval from the local Ministry of Agriculture to secure some “tax exemption” for the fishing trade.
It appeared that it was a well orchestrated plan to extort money from him.
“They were fighting me down to pay duty, so I was going to town to get this paper they say I had to get to be exempted,” the man told Kaieteur News.
On his way to town he was contacted by a woman via telephone who identified herself as the Head Clerk of the Ministry of Agriculture.
“She say she hear that I wanted this document and she could arrange it for me. She said that it would usually take up to two years to get it but she could get it in two weeks,” the businessman said.
The fee was a whopping $500,000 and since he desperately wanted it, he reluctantly agreed to pay.
He was told to meet the woman near the University of Guyana access road.
He eventually met the woman and handed over the money.
“I so stupid, I did not even ask her for ID. But I did ask her if this thing legit and she said that she been doing it for a lot of people. I feel so nice, I took her to new thriving and had lunch,” the businessman told Kaieteur News.
A few days passed and the woman telephoned him to assure him that all was well.
Last Sunday though when the businessman called the woman he began getting some suspicious vibes, by the way she was responding to his queries.
He soon realised that he was conned and he began making moves to recover his money.
He even contacted the woman again and offered her more money to speed up the process in an effort to entrap her but after then he never got through to her again.
He confided in some friends who promised to help him locate the woman and eventually they did.
The police were called in and they moved in yesterday and arrested the woman at a New Amsterdam, Berbice location.
But the woman told police that she did not collect the sum of money the businessman is claiming.
She said that she was given $200,000 to secure some “girls” for the businessman to take back to Suriname to work at his business there.
While police seem to have bought her story, they are still expected to charge her and place her before the court tomorrow .
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