Quote "AHI also leased the prime seven acres of shorefront property on which the hotel rests for a measly US$120 (G$24,000) per month with the option to buy."unquote

QUOTE: "Leader of the Alliance for Change (AFC), Khemraj Ramjattan, was correct when he was reported in September last year that the investor was ACE Square Investment Inc registered in the BVI.
Under BVI law, there is difficulty in accessing information as to shareholders and directors of companies, according to Ramjattan, hence there were no names made public at the time.
According to Ramjattan, it was former President Bharrat Jagdeo and the Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh, who were in talks with the company to invest in the Marriott project.
It was reported at the time that the law firm of Pollonais and De La Bastide out of Trinidad and Tobago (T&T), was asked to, and did prepare a ‘Guarantee’ to be signed by ACE Square Investment Inc.
Brassington at the time had refused to comment on the fact that it was reported that BVI-based ACE Square Investment Inc was the investor."

All communist and racist anti Chinese will show up at this thread. Yuji supports free enterprise and the Chinese are most welcome to invest in Guyana. After all Chinese are one of Guyana's six races.

Maybe, you don't know that China is still a one-party state run by the Communist Party of China. Just for your information.

And in China they put a bullet in the back of your head if caught for being involved in state corruption.

Two revolutions in one century and China remains a dictatorship. This a country that has never been a democracy.  Lets cultivate a relationship with China that is mutually beneficial. The US cannot change China to a democracy but they engaged them in commerce and trade. 

If Gilbakka wants to bring democracy to China I suggest he start swimming to Beijing. He will more than likely end up in a Chinese trawler net before he gets there. The Chinese will bust his head like a packoo and sell in him Richmond Hill for a $8.99 per lb.

America should pay close attention to PPP communists and their relationship with communist Chinese. Perhaps, what the Soviets failed to do can be achieved by the Chinese-a definite threat sitting at America's backdoor. Comrade Cheddie must be ecstatic.

So it doesn't bother you that FOREIGNERS will get 67% of the profits, despite only investing 15% of the capital?  Great deal for the Chinese.  Not so for Guyanese tax payers.  After all its they who invested and guaranteed the bulk of the financing.

No wonder the Chinese think that Guyanese are among the silliest people on that planet.

Who is against cultivating healthy relationships? This Hotel is another example of the PPP at their crooked worse. Imagine a whole year of secret deals, use of the nations finances and all to facilitate a couple of Chinese getting a sweetheart deal. Surely this comes with a quid pro quo. As is habitual, the PPP is lining their pockets.

Stormborn, if we had people like you running Guyana, we would be still shitting in bucket and eat it afterwards.

well most Guyanese are still doing this.

Now they shit in the bucket and retrieve the condoms packet with cocaine at their final destination. Those drug mules surely must be wishing they did not have to do that for a living under the PPP.

15% of the investment capital for 67% ownership at the expense of the Guyanese taxpayers. Rape of the country's treasury once more by the corrupt PPP.

You give yourself credit.Shitting in a bucket means you took the time to consider where you discard your work product. In realty squatting anyplace is the habit. I believe someone caught an Indian shitting in a plant in a US mall!

That coulda been Cobra preparing his lunch.

You saying the secret investor has secreted his investment for Cobra to enjoy?

So when are we seeing dollars from the chinese

They already paid.  Check Brazzy and assorted other PPP thieves.

Marriott hotel is born of fraud—

Ramjattan

…gives rise to justifiable suspicion of kickbacks

“This whole project is born of fraud and will suffer even worse (humiliation and embarrassment) if allowed to continue in its present configuration.” This is according to Alliance for Change (AFC) Leader, Khemraj Ramjattan, who was responding to the confirmation that it was ACE Square Investment Inc who is the private investor in the Marriott Hotel.

Khemraj Ramjattan

ACE Square Investment Limited is a British Virgin Islands (BVI) registered company, owned by two Hong Kong businessmen. “I want to maintain what I had said last year September, when I discovered that Ace Investment was the investor NICIL (National Industrial and Commercial Investment Limited) was talking to and dealing with to get that investment of US$8M.” The AFC Leader said that his party will definitely not be bound by the terms of such a transaction as is presently being conjured up “to complete this unhappily disgraced Marriott.” Ramjattan said, yesterday, that the AFC support for the project will only come if there is a forensic audit done immediately to investigate among so many things, all the players involved including former President Bharrat Jagdeo, Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh and NICIL’s Executive Director, Winston Brassington. Ramjattan recalled that Brassington had, last September, denied that there was any negotiation with a BVI Incorporated investor on the Marriott hotel. “Why then did he lie…What does he have to say now?” According to Ramjattan US$19.5M, “of public monies must not be dealt with by one who is so inexact with the facts…This kind of conduct must be penalized.” Ramjattan said that “it is misconduct like this which gives rise to justifiable suspicions that this project will see huge, illegitimate benefits and kickbacks to these local players.” “What also makes it smell fishy too is that there is no justification for a two-thirds proprietorship for inputting only US$8M when NICIL is inputting US$19.5M… Why this short changing of the public for the private?” According to the party Leader, “This so-called working class socialist government is now

The Marriott Hotel under construction in Kingston.

funding the bourgeoisie/capitalist. How ironic, what a somersault…This hardly adds up…We the taxpayers are going to lose out.” He noted, too, that not wanting to be pessimistic, if the fate of the hotel is not as successful as Government is propagandizing; the taxpayers would have made a major loss of a sum which could have been better spent on so many other priority issue. Ramjattan was adamant that the evidence of successes in the hotel industry is not there, “not from what is happening with Tower Hotel.” He added, too, “Quite frankly even Princess Hotel is struggling…I just hope its (Marriott) fate is not similar to that other project architectured by Jagdeo, the Skeldon Sugar Factory.”

Over the weekend Atlantic Hotel Inc (AHI) announced that ACE Square Investment Inc is the investor and its affiliate, Ace Square Management Ltd will operate the Entertainment Complex. AHI is the special purpose company created by Brassington to build and own the Marriott Hotel. ACE Square Investment Inc now has controlling interest (67 per cent) of AHI. Hong Kong businessmen, Victor How Chung Chan, and Xu Han have been identified as

the shareholders of the company.

NICIL has already injected its US$19.5M, a loan of US$15.5M and an investment of US$4M which it had committed to the project. The Marriott Hotel has been mired in controversy from its inception firstly with the rerouting of the sewerage system before any works had begun. Prior to the NICIL money, Government had given Courtney Benn Contracting Services Limited a US$1M contract for the rerouting of the sewerage system in the Kingston locale. That contract was pulled after more than US$700,000 was paid over.  It was then given to an overseas company, for a further US$2M. AHI also leased the prime seven acres of shorefront property on which the hotel rests for a measly US$120 ($24,000) per month with the option to buy.

Controversy continues to embroil Marriott…Private investors have no experience in Hotel Industry

- their businesses include lottery, mining

The Chinese private investors for the Marriott Hotel do not come with the background in the hotel industry that Winston Brassington had demanded.

The Georgetown Marriot

Instead, the named investors come with a background of primarily mining and lottery. Atlantic Hotel Inc (AHI) over the weekend announced that ACE Square Investment Inc is the investor and its affiliate, Ace Square Management Ltd will operate the Entertainment Complex. Winston Brassington, who set up AHI, in October 2012, had told the media that they are “looking for operators who have already established themselves as a brand regionally or internationally and can demonstrate extensive knowledge of the particular field of operation.” By way of an advertisement in the Tuesday, October 23, 2012 issue of the Guyana Chronicle (p.14), AHI said that it was seeking “expressions of interest from reputable organizations to outfit, operate and maintain” the three entities in the Entertainment Complex namely the Casino, Night Club and Specialty Restaurant in the Hotel. The advertisement stipulated that each may be operated individually or collectively, and that the first preference would be individuals or organizations already involved in the business. Two years later, AHI announced that British Virgin Islands registered ACE Square Investments Ltd, is now the majority share owner of the project (67 per cent) and that Ace Square Management Ltd, reported to be an affiliated company of ACE Square Investments Ltd., have been selected to operate the Entertainment Complex. Hong Kong businessmen, Victor How Chung Chan, and Xu Han have been identified as the shareholders of the companies. According to AHI, in its announcement on Saturday last, Victor Chan has diverse and substantial investment interests both in Hong Kong and China. “He is an Executive Director of the REXLOT Group and is the single largest shareholder and Founder and Director of the REX Resources Group.” The REXLOT Group is said to be the leading lottery system and distribution company in China and has extensive operations in China’s lottery market, through its local subsidiaries and international joint ventures. The REX Resources Group is principally engaged in gold, coal, rare earth and other metal, mining exploration and development, both in China and internationally. Chan is also said to be the leading investor and shareholder of China Gamma Group. Xu Han is reported to be a long-standing business associate of Chan and holds graduate degrees from prominent US and Hong Kong universities. Additionally, Han has over 30 years of global experience in both the public and private sectors, such as finance, gaming, and mining. Observers are now questioning on what basis the BVI registered company, owned by the two Chinese businessmen was chosen to invest US$8M. Last September, when Brassington announced that four proposals had been submitted to operate the entertainment complex of the Marriott branded hotel, he said that the potential operators had to submit conceptual designs of the entertainment complex “to show they have a concept of what they are looking to do with some level of details.” Brassington said that information provided would allow Government to judge the potential operators on technical and financial capabilities to undertake this project with respect to both resources and technical people, who would operate the casino. In its announcement on Saturday last, AHI did not identify who were the three others that had been vying to operate the Entertainment Complex.