Demerara Waves: By Denis Chabrol — Sunday, 19 June 2022
Su Zhi Rong
Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo on Sunday fended off fresh claims that he takes bribes from Chinese investors and said he would possibly take legal action against Guyana-based Chinese businessman, Su Zhi Rong for sullying his name and engaging in extortion.
“Su denied having said this. Now, I have seen the release that he has actually said this so now I’ll have to ensure that I take some steps in regard to dealing with that because he has used his friendship to basically leverage it and in so doing destroying my reputation and extorting investors,” Mr. Jagdeo told Demerara Waves Online News/News-Talk Radio Guyana 103.1 FM.
Mr. Jagdeo said he would be evicting Mr. Su from his property but he does not know where he is. Mr Su, according to Mr. Jagdeo, has paid rent up to May, 2022.
Just hours after news reports surfaced of Mr. Jagdeo denying that he gets involved in business deals with Mr. Su, his friend, who looked after all their agreements, the top elected government official threatened to take action against the businessman.
The Vice President said when a Vice News reporter visited his home, in the company of Mr. Su, and sought to get him to discuss a project that that Chinese businessman was involved in, Mr Jagdeo said, “I made it clear that I did not want to discuss the specifics of his projects; that my job was from the government side to facilitate projects for everyone.”
In what appears to be Mr. Jagdeo’s first-time revelation that Mr. Su and others had visited his home at Goedverwagting, East Coast Demerara, the Vice President said the purported investor “attempted to offer me a bribe but he spoke to Su in Chinese.”
Mr. Jagdeo said, while he was unaware that he was being recorded, the bribe could have been offered at the stage “if he actually wanted to verify whether I would take a bribe.”
Against that background, Mr. Jagdeo noted that Mr. Su, whom he has previously acknowledged is his friend and tenant, had lied about using his name. He did not categorically state whether he would take private legal action or file a police complaint against the businessman. “Su seems to have said to him that he will collect the money and so this is precisely what I was saying all along that I don’t know what Su and the others have been telling the reporters or investors who come to this country,” he said
Mr. Jagdeo said Guyana government politicians do not have to be bribed. “They do not have to pay a single cent to any government officials to facilitate their investment. Our job is to do that on our own and so if they are ripping off these investors and collecting their money as a service fee or whatever else, they are keeping all of it to themselves,” he said.
In the Vice News production titled “Guyana For Sale” , Mr Jagdeo told the news team that posed as investors, who were interested in prime lands for the construction of a hotel and casino to cater for the oil sector, that he does not deal with business because he is in government and Su is his friend. “I’m not getting involved in business. Su is my friend. He gets all the support. Su deals with all the agreements. I don’t, I don’t. The thing is that, my thing is that I’m in government so I assist from government side. That’s it,” Mr. Jagdeo said.
Mr. Su is heard telling the Vice News undercover reporters that he had good connections with the Vice President and would split the “processing fee” with Mr. Jagdeo. “If we are doing business together, my boss is not going to receive the money directly. It’s going to be a “service” or “processing” fee. Then he’ll share some of it with me,” he said.
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Jagdeo says facilitates investments, amid Su’s claims of under-the-table “processing” fee
Demerara Waves: By Denis Chabrol — Sunday, 19 June 2022
Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has indicated that he facilitates investment deals but does not get into the actual financial transactions, during facilitation talks at his residence by Chinese businessman, Su Zhi Rong, in the presence of Vice News journalists posing as Chinese investors who were interested in a large scale investment opportunity for prime lands that could accommodate a hotel and casino.
“I’m not getting involved in business. Su is my friend. He gets all the support. Su deals with all the agreements. I don’t, I don’t. The thing is that, my thing is that I’m in government so I assist from government side. That’s it,” Mr. Jagdeo said at his sprawling residence at Goedverwagting, East Coast Demerara.
Mr. Jagdeo on Sunday did not immediately comment on the Vice News production seen so far by him, but promised to do so later.
When the Vice President released the full interview with Vice earlier this year, he had vehemently denied taking bribes from Chinese middlemen and Su had even issued a separate statement rubbishing suggestions that he was a deal-making middleman.
The Vice News journalist is seen recording an audio conversation purportedly with Mr. Su who says, “once the money is in Guyana, I will give him the cash. The Vice President finds this the easiest and most convenient. With these procedures no one can pick up on us.”
But in the Vice News production titled ‘Guyana For Sale’, Su said, according to a text transcription from Mandarin to Chinese: “I have to know that the money is going to him (Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo). Don’t worry I will give him the money with you.”
On wrapping up the discussion at Mr. Jagdeo’s residence among Mr. Su and the undercover Vice News team, Mr Su remarked that the top elected government official’s “hands are very clean”. The Chinese businessman, who has large investments in logging and other sectors, indicated that he has brokered deals in the oil sector and the construction of a proposed hydroelectricity power plant. “The hydroelectric power plant needs tens of millions of dollars. He had me handle those. He will never admit that he’s involved in this,” Mr. Su said also through a voice-to-text translation.
The Guyana government has since called off negotiations with China Railway Group Limited, saying that the company has found that the Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) model was no longer feasible and would instead prefer an Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) model.
Mr. Su told the Vice News journalists that he had good connections with the Vice President and would split the “processing fee” with Mr. Jagdeo. “If we are doing business together, my boss is not going to receive the money directly. It’s going to be a “service” or “processing” fee. Then he’ll share some of it with me,” he said.
Without naming the company, Vice News quoted an unnamed General Manager of a an unnamed China’s largest State-owned constructioin form as saying that “the consulting fee is the bribe” and “they don’t do any actual consulting.
Comments
I’ve been lamenting this a long time on this blog, how one has to be a member of the elite to get the investment deals and prime real estate.
All I see in GT are taller and taller buildings being valued as if it were wooden houses in the 1950s.
Canada is no different. The Chinese investors use Toronto and Vancouver real estate to clean dirty monies while politicians open consulting firms to arrange corrupt transactions as clean using corrupt lawyers as nominees.
Canada and America are way more corrupt than Guyana, but they hide it using lawyers.
Good morning Age, is how bad corruption is in Canada? I’ve been hearing of random Chinese man arriving from Beijing and Hong Kong with suitcase load of money to buy house in Canada.
I guess that the Canadians who own homes are glad to sell their homes to foreign money launderers, but for someone working in a factory paying rent and wanting to save for a downpayment, they are left behind.
You and a few others are the minority (no pun intended) who don’t like the ABCEU countries for their discrimination and undemocraticism against the bottom 99% of citizens.
Whether true or not is now moot. Two reasons, short memory Guyanese, and a set of very focused well planned political maneuvers, with some huge investment promises. His acceptance into the most anti.PPP locations tells a lot.
I feel that he might wipe out the opposition for a long time, because it seems they are now spending all their time and effort back stabbing each other.(publicly)
In Canada, we call it pay for play with dinner events at C$1500 a plate. Never forget the SVN Lavalin scandal