Guyana’s Ambassador to Kuwait today explained the circumstances of a charge against him in 2002 by the US Securities and Exchange Commission and which has raised questions here about his suitability for a diplomatic posting.
A statement from the AFC follows:
Ambassador Dr. Shamir A. Ally vehemently denies culpability in the charges brought by the SEC to the company he was employed with.
Guyana’s Ambassador to Kuwait, Dr. Shamir Ally was employed by Acrodyne, a Public MANUFACTURING Company, for a SHORT PERIOD, from February 2, 1999 to May 9, 1999 as the Cost Accounting Manager. On May 10, 1999 he was promoted to Controller and he served in this position for fifteen (15) months up to July 10, 2000.
The company’s President, A. Robert Mancuso had asked Ally to help turn around the company as they were preparing to manufacture Digital Television Transmitters for Television Stations, converting from analogue to digital systems.
Dr. Ally was terminated in July 2000 when the Technical Director Ostroff became the new President. The company was at the time in the midst of a power struggle, falling revenue/income & a depleting labour force.
Two (2) years later in May 2002, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the United States agency for maintaining fair, orderly and efficient markets in-country, served notice on Acrodyne Pty. Ltd. and its former principals of its intention to take CIVIL ACTION.
The charge read that the SEC was accusing former President A. Robert Mancuso and former Chief Financial Officer Ronald R. Lanchoney, along with Controller Shamir Ally, of disseminating false financial information in press releases and Commission filings in 1998, 1999 and 2000. Dr. Ally was first employed at Acrodyne in 1999.
The procedures he worked with he had inherited, and he operated under the close supervision of the CFO.
Dr. Ally was charged jointly with Mancuso and Lanchoney. Instead of proceeding with a long and costly trial, the three professionals were strongly advised by that company’s Attorney-at-Law, Mr. Steven Thomas, to make a deal with the SEC to pay fines WITHOUT ADMISSION OF GUILT.
Dr. Ally’s VEHEMENT denials of any culpability were first contained in correspondences to the Staff Attorney of the SEC’s Central Regional Office, Ms. Dawn Leporati Leget, on May 29, 2002. His position today, fourteen (14) years after the incident, remains unchanged. He insists that the company’s annual reports to the SEC were accurate financial results, gleaned from information available from the company’s accounting systems.
Acrodyne used to prepare quarterly reports based on some actual, and some estimated figures. But at year-end they did ANNUAL STOCKTAKING for END OF YEAR reports which were all audited and forwarded to the SEC. The Quarterly Reports to the SEC were not AUDITED. That was Standard Operating Procedure at Acrodyne. There were also no highly computerized systems to offer closer evaluations from one year to the next.
In all of his correspondences to the SEC and Acrodyne since 2002, Dr. Ally has said that he “most VEHEMENTLY DISAGREES WITH THE SEC’s CHARGES”, and that he had agreed topay the US$10,000 penalty UNDER PROTEST! The CFO also paid a US$10,000 penalty and the company’s President US$50,000.
Dr. Ally also accused the SEC of making him a scapegoat since the Accounting procedures he had worked with he had inherited from his predecessors, and he has consistently iterated that he worked under the close supervision of Mr. Lanchoney, the CFO.
He said that his July 2000 termination ruled out his ability to access the accounting recordswhich would have enabled him to substantially rebut the SEC’s 2002 charge.
INACCURATE PUBLIC INFORMATION
Contrary to information carried recently in several sections of the local media claiming that the SEC’s 2002 charges took away his voting rights in the USA, Dr. Ally has proven that theSEC’s final judgment (the US$10,000 penalty) never prohibited him from serving as an Officer or Director of any public company (as it did his erstwhile colleagues), NEITHERDID IT RESCIND HIS VOTING RIGHTS.
Since 2002, Dr. Shamir Ally has continued to function unimpeded at very high levels in and out of the United States, voting at ALL National elections, City and Town elections.
At Indian Trail, North Carolina, Dr. Shamir Ally was SWORN IN to serve on six (6) Town Boards and Committees from 2014 to December 2015.
More recently, in February 2015, the North Carolina Secretary of State appointed Dr. Shamir Ally as a NOTARY PUBLIC.
We must reiterate that contrary to recent media reports, Dr. Shamir Ally was charged and required to pay a penalty by the SEC. He was not convicted of a crime.
