As hard times continue under the afc/apnu, people become more desperate to flee Guyana and succumb to con artists offering American visas.

Alleged visa scammer slapped with 45 charges

– remanded to prison on 17, granted bail on 20
Two days after alleged visa scammer, Dhanraj Raghubir, was taken to CID Headquarters to assist with

CHARGED: Dhanraj Raghubir

investigation in relation to scams whereby he obtained over $1M from several persons by claiming he could get them US visas, police have instituted 45 charges against him.
Raghubir, 27, of Lot 26 Gordon Street, Kitty, Georgetown was slapped with the charges yesterday after his appearance in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts.
He first appeared before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan and was not required to plead to 17 indictable charges, which all alleged that he fraudulently converted monies given to him by persons for him to either pay to Bank of Baroda for US visa application fees or for him to purchase bank drafts for Canadian visas, to his own use and benefit.
Four of the alleged victims were present for the court hearing.
Magistrate McLennan remanded Raghubir to prison despite a bail application by his lawyer, Paul Bram. During the bail application, Bram told the court that his client is willing to compensate the victims. He said that his client has no pending matters or previous convictions. He said that Raghubir works at Creative Concept located at 211 Garnett Street, Kitty.
Bram stated that Raghubir is not a flight risk and assured the court that he will attend all court hearings.
However, Police Prosecutor Deniro Jones strongly opposed the accused being granted pre-trial liberty on the ground that Raghubir has matters of a similar nature before the court.
Jones stated investigations are still ongoing and other charges are likely to be laid against him.
According to the Prosecutor, Raghubir has been evading police and had only been captured on Tuesday. On this notion, he argued that bail should be denied because the accused might not return to court for trial.

WANTED: Michael Persaud

In relation to these matters he will make another court appearance on March 4.
Moments after that court hearing, Raghubir was taken before City Magistrate Alex Moore to answer where he faced 28 more charges of a similar nature.
He was ordered to post $5,000 bail on each of 20 charges. For the remainder he was released on his own recognizance (self bail).
Magistrate Moore instructed Raghubir to lodge his Passport and to return to court on March 8.
Earlier this month, he appeared before City Magistrate Judy Latchman to answer two fraud charges. He was charged with forging a US Embassy appointment letter and also with uttering a document that he purported to be issued by the US Embassy, knowing same to be false.
Raghubir was released on a total of $50,000 bail after he pleaded not guilty to the accusations.
Persons have alleged that he had scammed them and collected a total of $1M from them under the pretext that he would be able to acquire US or Canadian visas, either a visitor’s or permanent for them.
Police had searched his place of work and found three passports belonging to the victims. Police had issued a wanted bulletin for Raghubir and Michael Persaud of Lot 15 Public Road, Herstelling East Bank Demerara pertaining to an investigation into several counts of obtaining money by false pretence. Persaud is still on the run.