GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Oct 31, CMC – Principal Magistrate Judy Latchman Friday granted GUY$150,000 (one Guyana dollar=US$0.008 cents) bail to billionaire businessmen Nazar Mohamed and his son, Azruddin Mohamed, after they had been arrested following an extradition request from the United States government.
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.
The matter has been adjourned to November 11.
The Georgetown Magistrates’ Court also also ordered that the men surrender their passports and report to the Ruimveldt Police Station every Friday, beginning November 7, 2025.
The Office of the Attorney General said that the Mohameds, a team of lawyers led by Terrence Willaims, KC, Herbert McKenzie and Celine Deidrick, presented to the Magistrate an Authority to Proceed from the Guyana government accompanied by an Application for an Arrest Warrant as is mandated under the provision of the Act.
The Mohameds are the subject of an indictment unsealed on October 6, 2025, by a United States Grand Jury sitting in the Southern District of Florida, which charges them with multiple offences including wire fraud, mail fraud, money-laundering, conspiracy, aiding and abetting and customs-related violations connected to an alleged US$50 million gold export and tax evasion scheme.
The indictment alleges that between 2017 and June 2024, the accused conspired to defraud the Guyana government by evading export taxes and royalties on over 10,000 kilograms of gold, using falsified customs declarations and re-used export seals to disguise unpaid duties. The indictment further references the attempted shipment of US$5.3 million in undeclared gold seized at Miami International Airport, and the alleged under-invoicing of a luxury vehicle valued at over US$680,000.
The Mohameds are being represented by attorneys Siand Dhurjon, Nigel Hughes, and Roysdale Forde, who have argued that the extradition move was unconstitutional and outside the court’s jurisdiction, and that their clients were never questioned nor given a chance to respond before their arrest.
Forde has dismissed the “flight risk” argument as baseless and noted that Azruddin Mohamed is the presumptive Leader of the Opposition. He said that both men have deep roots in Guyana and are willing to comply with all court-imposed conditions.
Dhurjon said the defence team also alleged a constitutional breach in the amendment to the Fugitives Offender Act, submitting that “the constitution says where we raise such a constitutional point, the magistrate is duty-bound to refer it to the High Court.”
“So, we come back in November…to debate on that point further,” Dhurjon noted.
CMC/gt/ir/2025