Selective scrutiny surrounds the Mohameds

Dear Editor,

Hadiyyah Mohamed’s letter is an extraordinary exercise in projection.

She condemns Bharrat Jagdeo for allegedly politicising a wake, then uses that very wake as the launching pad for a sprawling political attack. A conversation becomes a conspiracy; political civility becomes “desperation;” and normal engagement between government and opposition becomes evidence that the PPP is supposedly collapsing. No proof is offered because, apparently, repeating “Jagdeo is scared” is now a substitute for evidence.

But Hadiyyah carefully avoids the matter that cannot be explained away by rhetoric: her brother and father were sanctioned by the United States Treasury under the Global Magnitsky framework^[1]. Mohamed’s Enterprise and its subsidiary, Hadi’s World, were also designated. A United States federal grand jury subsequently indicted Azruddin and Nazar Mohamed over an alleged multimillion-dollar gold-export, tax-evasion, and money-laundering scheme.^[2] Extradition proceedings followed, and the Caribbean Court of Justice ruled that the process could continue.^[3]

These are not allegations invented at Freedom House. They involve the US Treasury, the US Department of Justice, a federal grand jury, American investigative agencies, and judicial proceedings extending to the CCJ.

An indictment is not a conviction, and the Mohameds remain entitled to the presumption of innocence. But due process does not mean pretending that sanctions, federal charges, and extradition proceedings do not exist. Nor does it mean dismissing every institution that asks difficult questions as an instrument of the PPP.

That brings us to the family’s growing pattern of dishonesty. Hadiyyah writes that society must not “prejudge” the investigation into the alleged attack on Azruddin. Yet, paragraphs later, she presents the “attempted assassination” as evidence of the PPP’s desperation. She demands an investigation, then announces her preferred conclusion before that investigation is completed. That is not respect for due process. It is political propaganda masquerading as principle.

The irony becomes even more remarkable when one considers Hadiyyah’s celebrated dissertation on corruption. She presents herself as an academic authority on corrupt governance while acting as a public defender of a family business network at the centre of one of the gravest international corruption cases ever involving Guyanese nationals. Hadi’s World, the business literally named after her and a subsidiary of Mohamed’s Enterprise, was itself designated by OFAC.^[4]

Studying corruption is one thing. Confronting allegations involving one’s own family is the real examination.

Where, then, is the academic scrutiny of the US Treasury’s findings? Where is the concern about the US$50 million that American authorities allege was denied to Guyana through undeclared gold exports? Where is the outrage over the alleged bribery of public officials, falsification of documents and laundering of proceeds? Apparently, corruption only matters when it can be blamed on the PPP.

The selective morality does not end there.

WIN won 16 parliamentary seats: Azruddin and 15 other representatives. Yet when WIN parliamentarian Dr Andre Lewis resigned amid a police investigation into an alleged sexual offence^[5], where were the thunderous declarations from Hadiyyah, her sisters, Azruddin, Tabitha Sarabo-Halley and Odessa Primus about accountability, transparency, and the seriousness of the allegations?

Lewis is also entitled to due process. But allegations serious enough for him to resign from the National Assembly deserved more than convenient silence from the same people who now lecture the country about democratic accountability.

Hadiyyah wants Guyanese to believe that every investigation involving her family is persecution, every institution questioning them is compromised, every political conversation excluding them is a conspiracy, and every unanswered question should be directed at Jagdeo.

That is not accountability. It is a family public-relations strategy.

The Mohameds cannot demand scrutiny of everyone except themselves. They cannot invoke due process when it protects Azruddin, abandon it when accusing the PPP of attempted assassination, write dissertations about corruption while refusing to confront the international corruption allegations surrounding their own business empire, and preach accountability while remaining conspicuously quiet when serious allegations arise within WIN.

Before Hadiyyah Mohamed writes another lecture about integrity, transparency, and corruption, she should begin closer to home. Perhaps a corruption dissertation would be better served in the form of a family-tree case study.

References

1. OFAC targets individuals and entities in Guyana with Global Magnitsky sanctions | Willkie Compliance Concourse — complianceconcourse.willkie.com ↩
2. Former Guyana presidential candidate charged in $50 million tax scheme involving gold bars seized in Miami, DOJ says - CBS Miami — www.cbsnews.com ↩
3. CCJ Dismisses Appeal, Allows Extradition Proceedings to Continue Against Guyanese Opposition Leader and Father – Caribbean Court of Justice — ccj.org ↩
4. US imposes sanctions on former Exxon contractor in Guyana over alleged fraud — www.reuters.com ↩
5. WIN MP resigns over probe into alleged sexual offence – Demerara Waves Online News- Guyana — demerarawaves.com ↩